At Birley Primary Academy, our vision is to support all children to ultimately lead physically active lifestyles. We aim to develop all children to be physically competent in a variety of skills. We aspire for our children to be positive and confident to regularly take part in a range of physical activities. We want our children to find purpose and enjoyment in their sport and physical activities and carry this with them as they grow up.
Here at Birley Primary Academy, we aim to develop a broad, rich and engaging curriculum by providing children with up to two hours’ worth of time specifically timetabled for physical education. Our children encounter a wide variety of physical activities to enhance their knowledge and skills across numerous sports alongside other physical activities. Positive and inclusive participation in physical education will enable children to build self-esteem, teamwork and positive values and attitudes not only in PE but also across the full curriculum.
The National Curriculum for Physical Education aims to ensure that all pupils:
At Birley Primary Academy, we aim to ensure that our Physical Education lessons are engaging, allowing children time to discover, play and spend time on a task when learning a new skill, as well as being progressive in order to challenge every pupil to fulfil their unique potential. It is essential children go through the process of attempting, failing and succeeding to build resilience and determination to achieve personal challenges.
Our children have the opportunity to experience a wide range of activities arranged through teaching by highly skilled teachers and quality specialist coaches who attend school to deliver coaching sessions to both our children and our staff. Children in Key Stage 2 also access swimming lessons to ensure they meet the minimum requirement at the end of KS2.
Our curriculum is further enriched through children taking part in PE events and competitions, which take place in a host of different locations around the city. Children’s skills, abilities and talents are enriched by providing opportunities to showcase the talents of those who are Gifted and Talented, and build up the skills of our disadvantaged pupils, who may otherwise not have such opportunities.
Further to this, children at Birley Primary Academy also have access to sports clubs – ran either before, during lunch or after school – which are led by specialist coaches or external companies. We also promote competitive sport and have a number of teams who compete locally throughout the year which gives the children an opportunity to develop their communication and team working skills.
During our Summer Term each year, we hold a Sports Day where families and carers are invited to share and celebrate the success of our children and their talents in sport. Children complete a range of activities both competitively and non-competitively.
The impact of our PE curriculum is that the children will meet their age-appropriate skills in Physical Education and be able to transfer these skills into other sports and everyday activities. It is hoped that physical education will light a love of sport and physical activity, so that our children will engage in extra-curricular sporting opportunities provided by the academy and local clubs and agencies. Through our Physical Education curriculum, we believe we can equip children with skills in team building, promote physical and mental health and boost confidence and resilience.
At Birley Primary Academy, assessment of skills, identified within the P.E. National Curriculum, is carried out lesson by lesson by class teachers. There is a clear success criteria for each lesson enabling staff to identify skills acquired and plan future lessons to build on those skills. Children are encouraged to peer assess, offering constructive feedback to aid further development during each lesson.
Teacher judgements will be quality assured by the subject leader using first-hand evidence of how pupils are doing, drawing together evidence from lesson observations, learning walks, evidence through photographs and videos and through pupil voice to monitor ongoing progress.Assessments will inform the curriculum and whether children are ready for the next stage in the curriculum.
We endeavour to ensure that the sequence of content enables our children to progress whilst they are with us whilst also providing our pupils with the necessary foundations to build upon as they progress into secondary education and beyond. Underlying all of this is our emphasis to develop a love for sport that will support them to grow up to live happy and healthy lives.
In our PE curriculum, we promote British values in the following way:
Further to this, our PE curriculum is also driven by SMSC development and this can be exemplified in the following ways;
