'Building a healthier tomorrow, starting with today'

Intent

The Physical Education department are passionate about striving to create an environment where students are encouraged and supported to recognise the importance of leading a healthy and active lifestyle throughout their school life and beyond. 

• We are committed to providing opportunities for a wide variety of sports experiences with an aim to develop students’ understanding of the principles of health and fitness alongside an enjoyment for being active. 
• We strive to engage students in physical activities at all levels in order to improve physical abilities, in addition to gaining knowledge about the significance of regular exercise for overall wellbeing.
• We believe in driving participation and celebrating performance whilst recognising how significant physical education can be in building self confidence and reducing anxiety.

Meta-concepts

The following meta-concepts underpin our curriculum:

• Health- Ability to promote and engage with physical fitness, develop healthy habits and understand the importance of an active lifestyle. 
• Environment- ability to create safe and inclusive spaces and be an active participant
• Performance- ability to execute physical activities and develop specific skills for a desired outcome and result.
• Communication- understand the significance of effective verbal and non-verbal forms of communication within different sporting scenarios. 
• Strategy- Understand how to apply tactics, techniques and game plans in sport to enhance performance and achieve desired results. 
• Physiology- Understand how the body responds and adapts to exercise and the effects physical activity has on various body systems. 
• Psychology- Understand the psychological factors that can affect performance.

Physical Education curriculum sequence 

Implementation

Our Physical Education curriculum is thoughtfully designed to actively engage students and foster a deep understanding of the importance of physical exercise for a healthy life through practical and theory lessons. By employing a spiral curriculum design, we introduce essential aspects of sports and continually build upon them, ensuring a gradual and deepening understanding over time. 

Key Stage 3 

In KS3, students participate in four lessons of Physical Education a fortnight. They experience a full range of sports that fall into five main categories; invasion games, net and wall games, individual pursuits, aesthetics and striking and fielding. Students develop the key skills and knowledge needed to begin to develop their aptitude for each sport.

Year 7- When reviewing our curriculum we consider how best to support our students to develop and acquire the functional movement skills first introduced in KS2. We introduce two new sports per half term in order to ensure our students are exposed to a wide range of sports from the outset. Health is a key meta-concept of focus during year 7. Students particularly enjoy being introduced to new team and individual sports they have not previously covered and we use extra curricular clubs and competition to harness this enthusiasm and create an environment where students of all abilities are confident to participate. As students begin to develop their understanding of the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle we feel it is important that they are given the opportunity to take part in competitive and non-competitive situations, to excel and reflect in order to improve.

Year 8- The curriculum in year 8 celebrates the strategies and tactical awareness needed to deepen understanding and aptitude in various sporting arenas, focussing on health, environment and physiology as the key meta-concepts. Students begin to refine skills and techniques alongside developing key knowledge. Further focus is placed on self and peer assessment as students are encouraged to set realistic goals for improvement. Students begin to apply their knowledge to specific physiological factors, considering the wider impact of physical activity on long term health.

Year 9- The year 9 curriculum allows students to prepare for the transition to GCSE and it is here that the meta-concept of physiology is further developed. Students begin to specialise in specific positions and roles within sports in order to achieve success. Skills are refined to become more consistent and some students begin to master complex skills, demonstrating success in practice and competitive situations.  Students begin to consider their pathway at GCSE, provided with the opportunity to explore options and the theory associated with a healthy and active lifestyle. 

Key Stage 4

Year 10 and 11- Students follow two different pathways dependant on their options choices. Students with a higher aptitude for sport follow the GCSE pathway. Each pathway is tailored to provide the greatest chance of success. All students participate in five lessons a fortnight, split between practical and theory lessons.

GCSE specification- OCR GCSE PE

GCSE specification- NCFE Health & Fitness 

Impact

The PE curriculum supports high engagement throughout, nurturing each students individual set of skills by offering a wide range of sports throughout KS3. The curriculum is underpinned by a core belief that all young people should have the knowledge to lead healthy and active lifestyles post 16; ensuring students have the skills, knowledge and experience to continue with physical activity as health conscious individuals. The curriculum supports students to become self reflective, to receive and respond to feedback and to link knowledge to the wider world. After KS4 students have the knowledge needed to be lifelong, health conscious and physically active citizens who are in a position to explore careers within the health and fitness industry.