MAB’S CROSS PRIMARY SCHOOL

Physical Education

INTENT

At Mab’s Cross Primary, we believe PE is one of the main driving factors for our pupil’s physical and mental well-being. We place a high importance on sports and physical activity, building opportunities for children to compete against both each other in school and against local schools in competitions.

Our curriculum is designed with inclusivity in mind, not just for those with physical difficulties but for those who are reluctant to engage in competitive sports or those lacking confidence in their physical abilities. To achieve this, our curriculum is designed around Real PE, a multi-skills programme that develops children’s ability in the core skills of agility, balance and coordination through a series of movements and skills.

This approach is designed to ensure that all children, regardless of their abilities, can engage in meaningful and progressively challenging skills development that can be applied across a range of games. Children then apply these fundamental skills in different games each half-term to build their understanding of different sports, dance and gymnastics. Children in KS2 also go swimming.

We strive to educate children not just about their physical abilities, but also about their health, fitness and diet, so that they can be active and healthy individuals and have a good understanding of how to look after themselves physically and mentally.

Due to the nature of the Real PE skills programme, lessons are extremely adaptable – a session can have children working on a very wide range of skills, so all children can be included, and all children can be challenged. This means that regular assessments are vital, and these are made half-termly to allow teachers to plan for upcoming sessions and also to measure the impact of their teaching.

We also aim to get as many children active outside of PE sessions as possible, aiming to get children moving and encouraging them to be active at breaks, dinnertimes and after school. Children have access to a range of experiences and try different things to hopefully spark an interest in new sports or activities.

IMPLEMENTATION

The curriculum we use works on a series of colour graded skills, which progress naturally into each other. These twelve areas of movement or skill are referred to as ‘FUNS stations’, and they move right from EYFS to Y6. Each of the twelve FUNS stations is progressively built, with small increments designed to continually push children in a way that is achievable – children are able to progress at their own pace and there is not a feeling of failure as the steps are small. This makes them especially useful for children who have poorer motor control or physical difficulties (in fact, a number of these skills are used by teaching assistants delivering sensory diets to help support children who cannot regulate their sensory experiences well).

The PE lead and the PE specialist teacher have arranged the curriculum so that the skills children develop first in each year group are fundamental to the acquisition of further skills, and are also applicable to the widest range of sports and activities. Opportunities are then built in throughout the year for dance and gymnastics, again sequencing the units so that the skills of agility, balance and coordination are constantly being revised and developed. This is supported by a skills progression document which has been introduced to all staff.

There is repetition year to year, with the same sports planned in the same order across all year groups. This cyclical approach allows children to revisit familiar skills and develop them, with each year becoming progressively harder. As the children move up through school, there is also more emphasis on team competition and more opportunity for children to lead their own and each other’s learning.

This consistency of approach allows children to revisit skills and develop them to the best of their potential. To further ensure consistency, a specialist HLTA delivers the bulk of the PE, having attended numerous training courses delivered by Real PE, Real Gym and the local cluster of schools through our School Games Organiser. This teacher shares her expertise with the other members of staff, making sure the children across year groups get the same experiences. It also means that she sees the children year on year, getting more familiar with them and knowing their strengths and weaknesses to allow them all to be pushed. It also allows her to tailor sessions so that particular games/warm-ups are carried out that she knows the children really enjoy and that will engage them.

Regular assessments of children’s skills for each unit are carried out half termly, marking children’s progress across each coloured band from working towards, ARE to GD. These bands have been graded against year groups, to ensure that there are ambitious starting and end points for all key stages. These assessments follow the children up through school, year on year, to ensure that no time is wasted by children performing skills that are too simple for them and do not offer challenges.

One of the best adaptations we have made to our curriculum is the units of work that EYFS take part in at the start of the year. ‘First Touch’ focusses on a very simplified approach to PE, developing many of the core skills of Personal, Social and Emotional development and Physical Development. This was implemented originally by the PE lead teacher, and delivered by Skills-wise as CPD through our sports premium. These units focus on simple tasks, such as building a tower from foam blocks or hurdling a low bar, but the emphasis is on children working together or taking turns. Communication is necessary for both aspects of the sessions. The main concept, though, is that physical performance is something that can be developed and improved, and that it can be enjoyable to be active and moving for purposes other than play. Once these core skills of listening, cooperation and turn-taking have been developed, the EYFS children move more onto formal units of learning, but these (as well as those in Y1) are driven through a story, to make positive links to literacy.

Dinnertime enrichment is offered through skills-wise groups, where more reluctant learners and those that do not, perhaps, get the same sporting chances as others are given a range of activities over a termly block once per week. This also increases the number of children who are active and participating in sport/activity each day. These run twice per week for each key stage.

There are also after-school clubs offered by Skillswise and members of staff so that children can get involved in a wider range of sports. Children perform well in these sports, and the school has a good sporting reputation in the local area for competing well against other schools.

Another facet of the school’s links with other schools is the work done by our School Games Coordinator: here, competitions are organised so that children are able to compete in a wide range of environments – successful schools go onto represent the town of Wigan in the Manchester Youth Games, a very good experience. The school games organiser also organises Town Sports, a Wigan wide athletics competition with around twenty schools competing. The children love the opportunity to take part in this, and the school traditionally does well in this competition.

The school also has close links with Wigan Cricket Club, Wigan Warriors and Wigan tennis club, which it uses to get more specialist coaching for the children and also highlight the range of sports that children can take part in outside of school.

IMPACT

Since the introduction of Real PE and Real gym, we have seen an increase in the level of engagement in PE lessons – while we have been using Real PE, we are seeing children making good progress against the FUNS stations.

Children’s skills have greatly improved, especially around their catching and coordination.

We have a greater number of children taking part in extracurricular activities, and are offering a wider range of activities whenever they are made available.

The standard of PE is consistently good across school, with recent monitoring showing engagement of pupils and modelling done by staff being of good standard. Challenge is offered to those who are not working at skills correctly, and extension work is given using the skills progression document. The assessment framework is also used to support this progression document, and the lead teacher reports that this is helping to inform planning and ensure the challenge is appropriate.