Physical Education (PE) Policy

Equal Opportunities Statement
This policy will be implemented on an equal opportunities basis, ensuring that it does not discriminate in any way against any pupil group, regardless of gender, ability, disability, religious or cultural belief, or racial background.

1 Aims and objectives

1.1 Physical education develops the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding, so that they can perform with increasing competence and confidence in a range of physical activities. These include dance, games, gymnastics, swimming and water safety, athletics and outdoor adventure activities. Physical education promotes an understanding in children of their bodies in action. It involves thinking, selecting and applying skills and promotes positive attitudes towards a healthy lifestyle. Thus we enable them to make informed choices about physical activity throughout their lives.

1.2 The aims of PE are:

• to enable children to develop and explore physical skills with increasing control and co-ordination;
• to encourage children to work and play positively and co-operatively with others in a range of group and team situations;
• to develop the way children perform skills and apply rules and conventions for different activities;
• to increase children’s ability to use what they have learnt to improve the quality and control of their performance;
• to teach children to recognise and describe how their bodies feel during exercise;
• to develop the children’s enjoyment of physical activity through creativity and imagination;
• to develop an understanding in children of how to succeed in a range of physical activities and how to plan and evaluate their own success.
• to offer children 2 hours of high quality physical activity per week.

2 Teaching and learning style

2.1 At St Margaret’s, we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in PE lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding and we do this through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities, including direct teaching in respect to the key teaching points of each activity. Teachers draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other children and we encourage the children to evaluate their own work as well as the work of other children. Within lessons we give the children the opportunity both to collaborate and to compete with each other, and they have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources.

2.2 In all classes there are children of differing physical ability. Whilst recognising this fact, we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:
• setting common tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of results, e.g. timed events;
• setting tasks of increasing difficulty, where not all children complete all tasks, e.g. the high jump;
• grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each group, e.g. different games with varying restrictions;
• providing a range of challenge through the provision of different resources, e.g. different gymnastics equipment.

3 PE curriculum planning

3.1 PE is a foundation subject in the National Curriculum. Our school uses the national scheme of work as the basis for its curriculum planning in PE. We have adapted the national scheme to the local circumstances of the school and also incorporated elements of the LCP planning files. As required, we teach dance, games and gymnastics at Key Stage 1. In Key Stage 2 we teach compulsory dance, games and gymnastics, plus two other activities: swimming and water safety, athletics or outdoor adventure activities. From Year 2 up to Year 5, pupils experience swimming activities and water safety training to fulfil the national requirements.

3.2 The curriculum planning in PE is carried out in three phases (long-term, medium-term and short-term). The long-term plan maps out the PE activities covered in each term during the key stage. The PE subject leader works this out in conjunction with teaching colleagues in each year group when required.

3.3 Our medium-term plans, which we have adopted from the national scheme and LCP files, give details of each unit of work for each term. These plans define what we teach and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of work across each term. The subject leader reviews these plans in conjunction with colleagues on an informal basis. Class teachers plan for each PE lesson using the foundation planning sheets. These list the specific learning objectives for each lesson and give details of how the lessons are to be taught. The class teacher keeps these individual plans, and the class teacher and subject leader discuss them on an informal, as required basis.

3.4 Each PE lesson follows the same five-part structure. Lessons begin with an introduction, then warm up, followed by the main activity and a cool-down/plenary, with mini plenaries used intermittently. For example:

Introduction- sharing the learning objective, discussing the last lesson, watching skills, technique etc.
Warm-up – pulse raising activity e.g. domes and dishes.
Main activity – skills session linked to clear objectives e.g. dribbling skills, then developed into a small-sided/ game situation.
Mini plenaries- used to highlight achieve,ent of skills, model good practice, refer children back to their lesson objective.
Cool-down – stretching/breathing activities to reduce pulse rate.

3.5 We plan the PE activities so that they build upon the prior learning of the children. While there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in each activity area, there is planned progression built into the scheme of work, so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school.

4 The Foundation Stage

4.1 We encourage the physical development of our children in the nursery and reception classes as an integral part of their work. As the nursery and reception classes are part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the physical development of the children to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five years of age. We encourage the children to develop confidence and control of the way they move, and the way they handle tools and equipment. We give all children the opportunity to undertake activities that offer appropriate physical challenge, both indoors and outdoors, using a wide range of resources to support specific skills.

2.3 Level 2 Sports coaches are used to work alongside staff to develop teaching strategies and knowledge. All classes receive one half term of PE support each year.

5 Contribution of PE to teaching in other curriculum areas

5.1 English
PE contributes to the teaching of English in our school by encouraging children to describe what they have done i.e. writing reports/ accounts on Outdoor Educational visits and to discuss how they might improve their performance. Many activities also offer the children a chance to develop their listening skills.

5.2 Information and communication technology (ICT)
We use ICT to support PE teaching when appropriate. In athletics, children have opportunities to use stop-clocks to record and monitor their performance and progress. Older children compare each other’s performance from recordings and use these to improve the quality of their work. Results may also be plotted into graphs using the computers.

5.3 Maths
There are many opportunities to use mathematical skills. For example, children may be able to calculate average times and distances during athletics. They may also measure distances and work out total distances achieved.

5.4 Science and Personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship
PE contributes to the teaching of personal, social and health education and citizenship. Children learn about the benefits of exercise and healthy eating, and how to make informed choices about these things.

5.5 Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
The teaching of PE offers opportunities to support the social development of our children through the way we expect them to work with each other in lessons. Groupings allow children to work together and give them the chance to discuss their ideas and performance. Their work in general enables them to develop a respect for other children’s levels of ability, and encourages them to co-operate across a range of activities and experiences. Children learn to respect and work with each other, and develop a better understanding of themselves and of each other.

6 Teaching PE to children with special educational needs

6.1 At St Margaret’s, we teach PE to all children, whatever their ability. PE forms part of the school curriculum policy to provide a broad and balanced education to all children. Through our PE teaching we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges and responding to each child’s different needs. Assessment against the National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals allows us to consider each child’s attainment and progress against expected levels.

6.2 When progress falls significantly outside the expected range, the child may have special educational needs. Our assessment process looks at a range of factors – classroom organisation, teaching materials, teaching style, differentiation and support – so that we can take some additional or different action to enable the child to learn more effectively. This ensures that our teaching is matched to the child’s needs. Intervention through School Action and School Action Plus will lead to the creation of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for children with special educational needs. The IEP may include, as appropriate, specific targets relating to PE.

6.3 We enable pupils to have access to the full range of activities involved in learning PE. Where children are to participate in activities outside our school, for example, a sports event at another school, we carry out a risk assessment prior to the activity, to ensure that the activity is safe and appropriate for all pupils.

7 Assessment and recording

7.1 Teachers assess children’s work in PE by making assessments as they observe them working during lessons. They record the progress made by children against the learning objectives for their lessons. They record this information and use it to plan the future work of each child. These records also enable the teacher to make an annual assessment of progress for each child, as part of the child’s annual report to parents. The teacher passes this information on to the next teacher at the end of each year. Class teachers are required to keep assessments after each theme to identify attainment levels.

7.2 The PE subject leader aims to keep some photographic/video evidence of children’s work (in a portfolio). This demonstrates the level of achievement in some areas of activity in PE. Class teachers are asked to contribute some evidence of different activities dependent on the year group (children may also be encouraged to use ICT equipment to evaluate there own and others performances).

7.3 Feedback to pupils about their own progress may also be achieved through informal discussions between the teacher and child in the context of the lesson.

8 Resources

8.1 There is a wide range of resources to support the teaching of PE across the school. We keep most of our small equipment in the PE store, and this is accessible to children only under adult supervision or specific PE monitors. The hall contains a range of large apparatus, and we expect the children to help set up and put away this equipment as part of their work. By so doing, the children learn to handle equipment safely. The children use the playground and the hall for games and athletics activities, however there is also access available to a nearby school field for larger events e.g. sport’s day. The local swimming pool is used for swimming lessons.

9 Health and safety

9.1 The general teaching requirement for health and safety applies in this subject. Specific health and safety in P.E guidance is taken from the AfPE publication ‘Safe Practice in Sport’ (Whitlam, P. 2012) We encourage and actively teach the children to consider their own safety and the safety of others at all times. We expect them to change for PE into the agreed clothing appropriate for each activity area. In order to participate in PE and games lessons children are required to wear: indoor black pumps (outdoor trainers for games); plain black shorts; plain white t-shirt.

9.2 Exceptions can be agreed on religious grounds e.g. track-suit bottoms for older girls, and for weather conditions. The governing body expects the teachers to set a good example by wearing appropriate clothing when teaching PE. The policy of the governing body is that no jewellery is to be worn for any physical activity (in certain circumstances jewellery must be covered using plasters e.g. newly pierced ears). Any religious ‘wrist’ items that can not be removed must be covered with a sweat-band.

10 Monitoring and review

10.1 The monitoring of the standards of children’s work and of the quality of teaching in PE is the responsibility of the PE subject leader. The work of the subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of PE, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school. The PE subject leader has specially-allocated, regular management time in order to review evidence of the children’s work and undertake lesson observations of PE teaching across the school, in keeping with the school self-evaluation plan.

11 Extra-curricular activities

11.1 The school provides a range of PE-related activities for children at the end of the school day. These encourage children to further develop their skills in a range of the activity areas. The school sends details of the current club activities to parents. The school also plays regular fixtures against other local schools and is a committed member of the School Sports Co-ordinator Partnership. This introduces a competitive element to team games and allows the children to put into practice the skills that they have developed in their lessons and clubs. These opportunities foster a sense of team spirit and co-operation amongst our children, whilst also developing a sense of ‘healthy’ competition.
11.2 Links with other agencies help to enrich the PE Curriculum. These may include: visits and coaching from sports agencies e.g. Golf Professionals, gymnastics coaches, visits to outdoor education centres, involvement in the School Sports Co-ordinator Partnership and liaison with PE advisors/specialists.

12. Excellence/Celebration

12.1 Excellence in PE may be celebrated occasionally in display and performance including:
• displays of dance/gymnastics in assemblies.
• involvement in sports day events.
• praise in Congratulations Assembly (every Monday).

Stuart Jones
P.E Co-ordinator
Date: March 2013