Physical Education
“Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states”
Carol Welch
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop playing”
George Bernard Shaw
At Ursuline we believe that PE and Sport play a vital role in a child’s developmental journey. It forms an essential foundation for the growth of the whole child. PE is essential in developing life skills. It develops a child’s health, builds character, develops strength and resilience and helps to embed values such as fairness and respect therefore playing a vital role in improving wellbeing.
We are passionate about ensuring that pupils are afforded a wide variety of experiences both within the curriculum and through a comprehensive extracurricular program.
We want to set children on a pathway to developing a lifelong involvement in physical activity and for them to understand the benefits of living an active lifestyle.
PE at Ursuline aims to develop the knowledge, skills and capabilities necessary for physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing now and throughout their lives.
Intent
At Ursuline we aim to develop the physical literacy of all our children. We want our pupils to develop the fundamental movement skills that all children need, such as running, hopping, throwing, catching and jumping. These movement skills in turn give them confidence to participate in different physical activities, sports, and games.
People need to feel confident in activity settings to enable them to be physically active in later life. This mainly comes from learning fundamental movement and sport skills as a child.
Individuals who are physically literate, move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities that benefit the healthy development of the whole person.
This means that people who are physically literate are able to:
- Develop the motivation and ability to understand, communicate, apply and analyse various forms of movement.
- Demonstrate a variety of movements confidently and competently across a wide range of physical activities.
- Make healthy, active choices that are both beneficial to and respectful of themselves, others and the environment.
Implementation
All pupils have 2 PE lessons per week. This will be our 2nd year of implementing and embedding PE Passport across the school. This provides staff with schemes of work for different areas of PE including net wall games, invasion games, striking and fielding and dance. Each year group from Year 2 to Year 6 will also get at least one half term of Swimming lessons. Each lesson plan clearly states the objectives and key skills to be addressed as well as the key knowledge. It allows teachers to be able to easily evidence the work in the lesson through pictures and videos. Lessons follow the pattern of warm up, Main Session, Game Based Learning and a conclusion which is where the Children are given the opportunity to assess their learning from the session which consolidates learning and informs future planning. We ensure that a range of physical activities are covered to allow pupils to develop their physical literacy, which is crucial in all aspects of life. This enables pupils to become more confident and comfortable in their own bodies.
Pupils will have the opportunity to access after school clubs. The PE coordinator ensures that these are provided fairly across the school. Participation in extracurricular activities is monitored and analysed to inform future provision.
PE lessons are inclusive and all pupils have the opportunity to participate fully, with adaptations made where necessary.
Impact
By developing the physical literacy of each pupil, our children will become confident and able movers. They will be able to confidently carry out everyday tasks comfortably and efficiently. Our children will understand the importance of physical activity and how this can form a healthy lifestyle. The PE curriculum will improve the wellbeing, fitness and movement vocabulary of all our children, not only through the development of sports skills but through the values that physical education promotes. Further developing qualities such as resilience in a PE situation and understanding how this can help in other areas of life is a key focus for us in making a positive contribution to the wellbeing of all our children.