1 Aims and Objectives
1.1 PE 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. PE promotes an understanding in children of their bodies in action. It involves thinking, selecting and applying skills, and it promotes positive attitudes towards a healthy lifestyle. Thus, we enable the children to make informed choices about physical activity throughout their lives.
1.2 Our objectives in the teaching of PE are:
- to enable children to develop and explore physical skills with increasing control and coordination
- to encourage children to work and play with others in a range of group situations;
- to develop the way in which children perform skills, and apply rules and conventions, for different activities
- to show children how 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 evaluate their own success
2 Teaching and Learning Style
2.1 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 or group activities. 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, children have a wide range of 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, such as an 80 m sprint)
- 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)
- 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. As required, we teach dance, games and gymnastics at Key Stage 1. In Key Stage 2, we teach dance, games and gymnastics, plus: swimming and water safety, and athletics.
3.2 We use the national scheme of work as the basis for our medium-term plans. This gives 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 will begin to keep and review these plans.
3.3 Class teachers complete a daily plan for each PE lesson. This lists the specific learning objectives and expected outcomes, and gives details of how the lesson is to be taught. The class teacher keeps these individual plans, and the class teacher and subject leader often discuss them on an informal basis.
3.4 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 progression planned into the scheme of work, so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school.
4 Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS)
4.1 We encourage the physical development of our children in the Early Year Foundation Stage as an integral part of their work. 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 from birth to five years of age. We encourage the children to develop confidence, control of the way they move, and care in the handling of 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.
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, and to discuss how they might improve their performance.
5.2 Personal, social, health and citizenship education
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.
5.3 Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
The teaching of PE offers opportunities to support the social development of our children through the way in which 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 cooperate 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 PE and ICT
6.1 Information and communication technology enhances the teaching of PE, where appropriate, in all key stages. A digital camera can record experiences during activities.
7 PE and Inclusion
7.1 We teach PE to all children, whatever their ability or individual needs. 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 good progress. We strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those with special gifts and talents, and those learning English as an additional language, and we take all reasonable steps to achieve this. We are currently developing policies for Special Educational Needs; Disability Discrimination; Gifted and Talented Children; English as an Additional Language (EAL)., which will hold additional information.
7.2 When progress falls significantly outside the expected range, the child may have special educational needs. Our assessment process looks at a range of factors – equipment, teaching style, differentiation – so that we can take some additional or different action to enable the child to learn more effectively, or challenge the gifted and talented children. Assessment against the National Curriculum allows us to consider each child's attainment and progress against expected levels. This helps to ensure that our teaching is matched to the child's needs.
7.3 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.
7.4 We enable all pupils to have access to the full range of activities involved in learning PE. Where children are to participate in activities outside our school (a sports event at another school, for example), we carry out a risk assessment prior to the activity, to ensure that the activity is safe and appropriate for all pupils.
8 Assessment for Learning
8.1 Teachers assess children's work in PE by making assessments as they observe them working during lessons. All children are encouraged to evaluate their own work and to suggest ways in which to improve. Teachers record the progress made by children against the learning objectives for their lessons. At the end of a unit of work, teachers make a judgement against the National Curriculum levels of attainment. Teachers 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 school's annual report to parents. The teacher passes this information on to the next teacher at the end of each year.
8.2 The PE subject leader will begin to keep photographic and video evidence of children's work (in a portfolio). This demonstrates what the expected level of achievement is in each area of PE activity in each year of the school. Teachers meet regularly to review individual evidence of children's work against the national exemplification material produced by the QCA and the DCFS.
9 Resources
9.1 There is a range of resources to support the teaching of PE across the school. We keep most of our equipment in the PE store, and this is accessible to children only under adult supervision. The hall contains a range of large apparatus, and we expect the children to help to 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 school field for games and athletics activities, and the local swimming pool for swimming lessons.
10 Health and Safety
10.1 It is the general teaching requirement for health and safety that applies to this subject. We encourage 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 for each activity area. 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 potentially dangerous jewellery is to be worn for any physical activity.
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 at the beginning of each half term. The school also plays regular fixtures against other local schools. 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. These opportunities foster a sense of team spirit and cooperation amongst our children.
11.2 Carleton Endowed School is also a member of Skipton Schools Sport Partnership and each year group participates in cluster events at the local secondary schools on a yearly basis. These events include cross country runs, multi skill activities for individual year groups, swimming galas for competent swimmers and for beginner swimmers, football and cricket tournaments dance festival and orienteering tasks.
12 Monitoring and Review
12.1 The coordination and planning of the PE curriculum are the responsibility of the subject leader, who also:
- supports colleagues in their teaching, by keeping informed about current developments in PE and provides a strategic lead and direction for this subject
- will give the headteacher an annual summary report in which she evaluates the strengths and weaknesses in PE and indicates areas for further improvement uses specially allocated regular management time to review evidence of the children's work, and to observe PE lessons across the school.
This policy was drawn up by the P.E Subject Leader and will be reviewed as appropriate.
Reviewed: Spring 2024
To be reviewed: Spring 2026