Introduction 

Physical Education is defined by the Association for Physical Education (AFPE) as, 'the planned progressive learning that takes place in school curriculum timetabled time and which is delivered to all pupils. It includes 'learning to move' (i.e becoming more physically competent) and 'moving to learn' (e.g learning through movement)'.

At St Joseph’s, physical education and sports skills are highly valued and are seen as being key in supporting the development of the whole child. A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. It provides opportunities for pupils to become physically and mentally confident in a way which supports their overall health and fitness. 

Physical Education at St Joseph’s 

St Joseph’s pupils participate twice weekly in high- quality physical education and sporting lessons. St Joseph’s provides an engaging, challenging and diverse physical education curriculum for all children. We teach children life skills that will positively impact on their future and inspire them to succeed individually as well as in competitive team sports. We teach a variety of sports to ensure all children develop confidence, sportsmanship and can critically evaluate and appreciate their own and others successes and improvements. We encourage children to work collaboratively in a team, compete with each other with resilience and confidently apply their skills in a variety of sports. 

Pupils learn how to embed life-long key values such as respect, fairness and responsibility through working cooperatively, collaboratively and communicating effectively with others in team games. We also provide children with opportunities to work critically and creatively: evaluating their learning, reflecting on success and improvements and incorporating new ideas or tactics in sports. We strongly believe that PE is a critical part of building a positive growth mind-set, as pupils learn to be resilient, persevere in the face of challenge and build an uncompromising passion to succeed. 

At St Joseph’s each year group works towards achieving the key objectives and skills in our PE Progression Map; these objectives have been developed in line with the National Curriculum expectations and teachers use these to inform their planning, assess outcomes and adapt their teaching accordingly. 

PE in the Early Years 

Under the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, Physical Development is one of the three ‘prime areas’ of learning. The document goes on to define Physical Development: 

‘Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.’ 

Physical development is then further broken down into the following two categories: 

Moving and handling: children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing. 

Health and self-care: children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently. 

At St Joseph’s, we develop PE in the Early Years though a mixture of adult led sessions and child initiated play. A range of activities in both the inside and outside learning environments encourage children to develop co-ordination and weekly P.E. lessons teach a variety of skills. These skills are built upon when the children go up to Year 1. 

Alongside P.E. lessons, a variety of different learning opportunities are used to teach health and self-care. We fully understand the importance of learning these life skills and providing a solid grounding for children to build their independence upon.

Extra-curricular Provision 

We offer a range of after school clubs, plus a variety of additional curriculum events which further extend our children’s learning in physical education. Children are regularly given the opportunity to participate in a range of sporting tournaments.

Cross Curricular Links

English and Maths 

Geography 

There are lots of planned opportunities for cross curricular learning between geography and P.E. Particularly when the Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA) units of work are taught. During these lessons, children develop their map reading abilities using our school orienteering maps. Skills covered during these sessions include (but are not limited to): identifying terrain, finding a location on a map, using a legend (map key), directions, how to use a compass, 4-figure and 6-figure grid references and how to use orienteering signs. 

P.E In Action 

The impact of our PE teaching and learning can be seen in the work below.

Cricket 

We were extremely fortunate to have Warren Bull from Kent County Cricket to upskill our teaching team on how to deliver cricket lessons in a primary school setting. This was done through the Chance to Shine national charity.