Intent
At Crofton Infants School we recognise the importance of Physical Education and fully adhere to the aims of the National Curriculum.
We intend to:
- teach PE in a way that focuses on the development of the whole child
- fully encourage all our children, regardless of ability or age, to enjoy PE and to be physically active at school.
- ensure all experience success, make progress and build a positive relationship with the subject.
Implementation
How are skills taught throughout school?
Children in nursery are actively learning both indoors and outside and physical activity is encouraged wherever possible. Formal P.E. lessons at Crofton Infants’ follows the REAL PE scheme including REAL Dance and Gymnastics, enabling teachers to plan, teach and deliver high quality PE lessons. This scheme was carefully chosen as it provides a broad, holistic approach to PE which includes, challenges and supports all ages and abilities of children. We teach key skills through the Fundamental Movement Skills ( FUNs) which are the central spine to the teaching PE at Crofton Infants. Two sets of skills are taught each half term, alongside a half termly set of holistic skills in the form of the ‘Cog’ skills which align the teaching of PE to our whole school aims and develop skills and attributes individuals need to be successful PE. The whole school works on the same skills set, however teachers are free to adapt or change lessons, based upon the needs or interests of specific cohorts or links to up and coming sporting competitions. The Cogs are not taught in the same order as that of the scheme as it has been adapted to suit our school environment.
Children receive two hours of discrete P.E teaching each week. Children arrive in school in PE uniform to maximise the time of the PE lesson. We aim to deliver an ‘indoor’ and ‘outdoor’ lesson each week and teachers follow the REAL PE long term overview to plan and deliver the lessons which focus on specific skills. Use of video clips ensures that the children ‘see’ correct demonstration of skills from a peer. Lessons are always structured to include aspects of evaluation to improve their performance and encourage children to have a deeper understanding of effects of exercise. Children also have the opportunity to work with a range qualified coaches throughout the school year as we encourage different sports coaches from local teams to work within our school.
How do we ensure progression of knowledge and skills?
The skills are covered and revisited in each year. Through revisiting the skills each year we allow children to continue to practise, improve and deepen their knowledge throughout their KS1 journey meaning that progression is very much measured in the ‘stage’ a child is at and not their ‘age’. The progression document ensures teachers are aware of how the knowledge and skills are built upon and ensure that within each lesson they can provide opportunities for differentiation and challenge. We believe that by following REAL PE we are including, challenging and supporting all ages and abilities of children within lessons.
How do we know that our children are making progress?
Ongoing assessments of the children’s knowledge and skills takes place during the lessons through observations made by the class teacher compared to the Fundamental Movement skill being taught for the part of the half term they are focusing on. Teachers also assess against the specific cog for the whole half term. Each assessment has an initial observation and a final observation to measure progress and allows the staff to monitor the progression of the children through the levels during the academic year. Assessment records are kept by the class teacher and shared with the PE co-ordinator to provide an overview of learning across the school and allows teachers in the following year group to plan appropriately for future lessons. This ensures that we deepen the learning of the children as they move through KS1.
How do we promote Physical Education, Health and Wellbeing?
We teach the importance of how to stay healthy and safe in different aspect of life through themes established within our curriculum. Through the holistic approach that we take in teaching PE we encourage children to build up good relationships their peers, work collaboratively and support one another. Skills of resilience and perseverance are also taught though the ‘cogs’ and these important life skills help children to cope with challenges that they are given in school, as well as the wider world.
The sporting successes of children both in school and out of school are celebrated in school, helping to develop a sense of pride in their own personal achievements and that of their peers. The After school curriculum has been significantly developed to enhance sporting opportunities further with children being given access to two different sports activities each half term. These are taught by qualified and experienced coaches. The clubs are popular and Pupil Premium children are given the opportunity to attend for free.
Workshops and visitors play a huge part of our yearly ‘Health Week’ and help to promote Physical Education as something that we value as a school. In addition to the discrete teaching of how to stay safe and healthy, children participate in workshops and activities to promote their mental health and safety during this week.
Active play is always provided in the Early Year’s outdoor area where the children have access to equipment to encourage active outdoor play such as the ‘balance- ability’ bikes. In Key Stage 1 children have a ‘trim trail’ to explore at play and lunch times. Play leaders are employed at lunchtime to lead and encourage physically active play.
What wider opportunities are provided for our children?
As children enter Year 2 we encourage more competitive elements and lessons are planned by the Year 2 teachers to teach rules of games to enable groups of children to take part in tournaments within our Trust. Following the detailed progression of skills we ensure that we teach the basic movements and skills needed to play competitive whole team games.
Children participate in regular external sports competitions of Football, Benchball, Scatterball and an Olympic style event each year alongside other schools in the Waterton Academy Trust. We celebrate collaborative involvement in sport during out Sports Day when parent and carers are encouraged to support their child in their sporting achievements. We balance participation for all against the more competitive nature as children compete for their team and have the opportunity to run against their peers.
Impact of PE at Crofton Infants’ School
The introduction of the carefully chosen scheme to our school has had a huge impact on teaching and learning. Teaching audits show that staff are now more confident in planning, delivery and assessment of PE and children enjoy their lessons with all being active.
In November 2023 we were very proud to be awarded the AfPE Quality Mark for PE having shown we ‘demonstrated good commitment to improvement in Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity’.
We believe that the impact of PE teaching at Crofton Infants’ is that we introduce children to the enjoyment of being active, which they will hopefully carry with them through childhood and into adult life.