Physical Education, School Sport & Physical Activity (PESSPA)

At St Chad’s RCVA Primary School we understand and believe that the roles of Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity (PESSPA) have a vital part to play in promoting a long term healthy lifestyle, social inclusion and self confidence in our children. Our vision for all pupils at St Chad’s is for them to become confident and physically literate in a way which supports their wellbeing as well as develop motivation, physical competence and knowledge and understanding. We want all children to enjoy sporting activities and continue to engage with these throughout their lives. At St Chad’s, we offer many different opportunities to the children with a focus on the importance and delivery of PESSPA to contribute to a whole child’s development.

The government provides Sport Premium funding to improve PE provision and sport in all primary schools and this supports our commitment and delivery of PESSPA.

The aim of Sport Premium funding are supported and structured around the following 5 key indicators:

  • The engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity – kick-starting healthy active lifestyles.
  • The profile of PE and sport being raised across the school as a tool for whole school improvement.
  • Increase confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport.
  • Provide a broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils.
  • To increase participation in competitive sport

Sports Premium Allocations

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PE Curriculum

Why we teach PE at St. Chad’s:

Physical Education (PE) is the planned, progressive learning that takes place as children’s curriculum entitlement. Our high-quality, inclusive physical education curriculum is designed to inspire all of our pupils to succeed and develop competence to excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities. Through this, it provides opportunities for our children to become physically confident and learn that their health, fitness and well-being is crucial and take steps to lead a healthy, active lifestyle. It also allows them to remain physically active for sustained periods of time and engage and compete in sports and activities to build character and help embed values such as fairness and respect.

How we teach PE at St. Chad’s

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PE lessons are taught discretely in designated lessons twice a week in Class 1 (EYFS), Class 2 (Year 1/2), Class 3 (Year 3/4) and Class 4 (Year 5/6). We ensure children participate in 2hrs of physical activity every week as well as aiming for 30mins of vigorous activity every day. At St Chad’s we embed physical movement and activity in other areas of the curriculum providing active lessons and regular brain breaks.

Staff use core tasks to assess and plan learning in PE. These tasks are used at the beginning and end of a unit of work to support this and evidence progression throughout KS1/2. In EYFS, Durham County PE skill tasks are used.

Throughout the year, following National Curriculum guidelines, we work to enable our children to succeed in a wide range of physical activities such as:

  • Gymnastics
  • Dance
  • Swimming
  • Games
  • Athletics
  • OAA

In Reception and Key Stage 1, children work to develop fundamental movement skills. They work on developing coordination, agility and balance and have the opportunity to develop their own simple dances with simple movement patterns. They master running, jumping, throwing and catching skills which they practice individually and in teams in simple games and competitions which allow them to develop simple tactics for attacking and defending. In addition they have the opportunity to develop simple gymnastic skills that increase core strength. These physical activities also give the children opportunities to begin to develop communication skills and teamwork; they begin to understand the importance of a healthy active lifestyle and to recognise how it feels to be physically active.

Key Stage 2 children work to improve their skill levels and develop their stamina. They use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination. They play competitive games and apply basic principles about attacking and defending and how these skills can be used in a range of sporting activities. They develop flexibility, strength, technique, balance and control and they perform dances using a range of movement patterns. They take part in OAA challenges both individually and within a team and they also compare their performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best. They learn about the importance of collaboration and fair play and, through a variety of competitions. Some of the competitions in school are between the different houses: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, whilst others have been against other schools in the Bishop Auckland area.

It is a National Curriculum requirement that all children should be able to swim at least 25 metres proficiently by the time they leave primary school. All Key Stage 2 children have swimming lessons during which they practise to develop front crawl, backstroke and breast stroke skills as well as performing safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

What we aim to achieve through the teaching of PE at St. Chad’s:

To ensure that all of our pupils:

  • develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
  • are physically active for sustained periods of time
  • engage in competitive sports and activities
  • lead healthy, active lifestyles

School Sport

School Sport is the learning that takes place beyond the curriculum, such as after-school clubs and tournaments. We aim to provide and maintain the different opportunities for children to participate in sports events and after school clubs as well as increasing participation in physical activities. In addition to this, we aim to maintain opportunities for children to participate and compete in intra and inter competitions and festivals which build resilience and embed values such as team work, fairness and respect.

A range of extra-curricular clubs are offered throughout the year:

  • Judo
  • Karate
  • Dance
  • Yoga
  • Cricket
  • Table Tennis

Across the year, there are many opportunities for our pupils to participate and compete in intra and inter competitions and festivals. Every half term pupils can participate in intra-school competitions- this year children took part in Basketball, Dance, Cricket, Rounders and Athletics competitions. Children are also given the opportunity to participate in inter-school festivals and competitions and a high percentage of our pupils attend these and demonstrate their key skills. This year we have participated in Tag rugby, Cross Country, Swimming, Sports Hall Athletics, Quad Kids, Rounders, Multi-Skills and Football.

Our pupils are also encouraged to apply their skills during playtimes and have access to equipment to enable them to do so. We also have a trained group of pupils (known as Sports Leaders) who provide and lead exciting sporting activities for children to participate in during break and lunch times. As a whole school, we take part in the Daily Mile to increase our activity levels during the school day. All children participate in ‘Fit Friday’ in which each class spend 30 mins outside participating in lots of different high-intensity sporting activities. The aim is to improve upon their physical fundamental skills and get our pupils actively moving and taking part in moderate/vigorous activity every week.

Physical Activity

Physical Activity encompasses all physical movement, including active lessons in other areas of the curriculum. At St Chad’s, we aim for all children in school to participate in 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity every day ensuring we embed this into other areas of the curriculum. Through sports and physical activities, we aim to develop a greater awareness in pupils of health dangers as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Sainsbury School Games

At St Chad’s we take part in Sainsbury’s School Games which is a competitive school sports programme which seeks to motivate and inspire millions of young people across England to take part in sport. This year we are aiming to retain our Silver Kitemark Award. Our Games coordinator is James Oldfield and attached below are his website and twitter accounts that will feature all the events and competitions that we participate in as well as the results for the competitions; they will also enable you to keep up to date with local sporting events.

The school games are made up of four levels of activity:

  • Personal Challenge:- Children are competing against themselves to improve upon their own results.
  • Intra-school Competition (Level 1):- Children compete through family groups competitions or in PE lessons.
  • Inter-school Competition (Level 2):- Children are selected to represent their school at a competitive level playing in local leagues, tournaments and events.
  • School Games Festival (Level3):- School teams that succeed at Level 2 win the opportunity to compete at County Festivals.

We are delighted to announce that we have retained the School Games Silver Mark Award for another academic year (2018-19). The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

Our sporting achievements this year include:

  • Inter House tournaments
  • Basketball/Dance and Athletics Competitions
  • Swimming, Cross Country and Quad Kids Competitions.
  • Basketball, Cricket, Karate, Dance and Table Tennis After School Clubs

With a total of 54 young people competing in local inter-school competitions this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.

As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.

Here’s to another successful sporting year!