Intent

At Alston Lane, we believe that a high-quality physical education curriculum should inspire all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities.  Our aim is for our PE curriculum to help children understand their bodies in action so they can make positive life-style choices which create a healthy mind and body. Through our teaching of PE and providing high quality opportunities to compete in sport, we aim to build our children’s character and help to embed sporting values such as fairness, respect and resilience which are transferable into all aspects of life.

Implementation

Our curriculum is taught following the Lancashire PE scheme of work which offers well planned sequences of learning, fulfilling every aspect of the National Curriculum whilst offering regular assessment opportunities and building in core sporting values such as resilience and respect.  Teachers skilfully use the PE Passport App to support the planning, assessment and delivery of the PE curriculum to ensure there is consistency across the school. Teaching sequences and chosen topics within lessons, have been carefully considered and mapped out to ensure that all children have access to a wide range of physical activities creating a clear progression of skills across the school.

Through weekly PE sessions and within their daily provision, children in EYFS focus on fundamental movement skills (FMS) and develop their fine and gross motors skills so they are ready to access the different elements of the PE curriculum in year 1. Throughout key stage 1, teaching will continue to develop the children’s FMS whilst helping them to apply these in different sporting contexts such as dance, gymnastics and games.  As children progress through key stage 2, the teaching sequence supports the development of attacking and defending skills through a range of sports/activities and in dance/gymnastics lessons the children will develop their performance and sequencing skills. Children in years 4 and 5, take part in swimming lessons, so they reach the required level of competency for swimming and water safety by the end of key stage 2. 

In addition to our curriculum offer, we ensure all children have the opportunity to attend after school and extracurricular sports provision. We offer a wide range of after school sporting clubs including mini-skills, football and netball and we regularly enter interschool sports competitions which give the children the chance to compete on a larger scale. Children’s  successes and sporting values are celebrated in our celebration worship on a Friday afternoon.  In year 4, the children have the opportunity to attend a residential trip at Tower Wood in the Lake District.  During this trip, the children are exposed to a wide range of adventurous outdoor activities such as canoeing, climbing and ghyll scrambling. Sporting values such as teamwork and resilience are developed.  Children in Year 5 also complete the Bikeability Programme to learn how to ride competently on the road, whilst learning how cycling can be an excellent way to keep healthy.

Links are made between PE and wider curriculum subjects, where possible, to ensure a holistic approach to learning fundamental skills is evident across all of children’s teaching and learning. In Science for example, Year 2, Year 3, Year 5 and Year 6 have a topic about Humans which aims to promote a healthy lifestyle. The children learn how to keep their body healthy, why exercise is important and how to cook healthy foods. In P.E. lessons, this learning continues as teachers reference how exercise helps the body in different ways.

All children take part in our annual sports day which has been carefully planned to support the development of sporting values through mixed aged house team activities in the morning, and competitive races in the afternoon, where individuals will have the opportunity to showcase their sporting abilities.