Physical Education

Intent

All children and young people should live healthy active lives. The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend that all children and young people should take part in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day with 30 minutes taking place in schools.

In the East of England, the number of pupils living with obesity is high. According to the NHS, in 2022-23, this stood at 8.1% for pupils in the EYFS rising to 20.6% for pupils in year 6 –and Peterborough has one of the highest rates of child obesity in the region (more than 9% and 24% respectively). Compounded by a national trend in physical activity decline during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is therefore absolutely essential that our pupils have regular access to sports and physical activity opportunities throughout their journey through primary school. We aim to do all we can to reduce these figures and have our pupils understand the importance of leading healthy, active lifestyles.

All Peterborough Keys Academies Trust (P.K.A.T.) schools recognise they have an important role in providing a foundation for positive and enjoyable participation in regular high-quality physical activity. It is important to improve the health and wellbeing of all pupils.

At Longthorpe Primary School, careful consideration is given to the P.E. curriculum to maintain high aspirations and expectations in competitive sports and other physically demanding activities for all pupils. Through our curriculum provision, our aims for students are to:

Participate and develop physical competency in a wide range of physical activities that provide appropriate challenge and risk.
Build confidence and resilience to try hard and make progress through all activities.
Enjoy learning in and through the development of physical skills, creative and thinking skills, and social, personal and leadership skills, and be able to apply those skills across their learning.
Be highly motivated and understand how to plan, organise and lead their own healthy, active lifestyles as well as influence those around them.
Develop their physical wellbeing through increased stamina, strength and flexibility, and recognise the impact on their emotional wellbeing and health from engaging in physical activity on a regular basis.
Be involved in learning about risk management, and their responsibility in this, for them to participate independently in physical activity in later life.

IMPLEMENTATION

Pupils have two hours of P.E. lessons each week, one of which is taught by a dedicated sports coach. P.E. lessons are characterised by lots of collaboration, plenty of time for practice and skill development, high engagement from pupils, pupils and teachers giving feedback to support and further develop learning and skills, and a strong focus on the accurate use of sports and fitness related vocabulary. In order to support our school’s aims for physical education,we use Get Set 4 P.E. resources to deliver our lessons. These resourcesprovide a really comprehensive physical education curriculum for our pupils and well-supports teachers in being able to deliver effective and well-planned lessons, which can be adapted to ensure all learners’ needs are met in P.E.lessons, including those pupils who may need to be challenged further. The curriculum has been designed to cover seven key areas of physical education to ensure that that our pupils have a fulfilling and well-rounded journey from the EYFS to year 6.

Our curriculum also includes opportunities for regular and relevant movement breaks, including a daily health & exercise segment. This takes the form of either the ‘daily mile’, Get Set 4 P.E. ‘active blasts’, Go Noodle, sensory circuit activitiesor yoga for body management and the chosen task is targeted at specific year groups appropriately. Extra-curricular clubs are also provided through the school as a way of giving our pupils more opportunities to take part in physical activity. These are offered to both KS1 and KS2 and encourage pupils to experience competitive games through competition with other schools and their peers, while also being able to participate in an activity which they enjoy and may not be able to access out of school time. Through these clubs, we also encourage pupils to engage in the community around them and join local clubs such as the City of Peterborough Swimming Club (COPS), the City of Peterborough Hockey Club, Spirals and the City of Peterborough Tennis Club

Physical education Roadmap

Swimming & Water Safety

Pupils in years 4, 5 and 6 go swimming at our local Vivacity pool located at our partner school, Jack Hunt Secondary School. By the end of year 6, pupils should be able to:

swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

The teachers who accompany each class for swimming are both Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) level 2 accredited and have the strong knowledge and skill set required of the subject to teach the lessons every week. We are also supported by professional coaches from the Vivacity staff so that the teaching of swimming can be targeted and taught in small groups. Swimming assessments are completed by the Vivacity teachers who base their assessments on the ASA swimming stages. The assessment determines how far each pupil is able to swim at the end of the half term, and the pupils are given certificates of distance. If any in year 6 have still not been able to achieve the required level, they will be able to have the opportunity to try again in the summer term to see if they can improve on their previous assessment. We also have pupils who swim for the City of Peterborough Swimming Club (COPS), and these pupils, along with any others who are put into the advanced set (stage 4) by the Vivacity teachers on the first week assessment, learn with the sports coach and have bespoke lessons targeted at their level.

Our swimming curriculum is based on the ASA swimming stages to determine what each group should be taught. For the different stages, please see the PE Curriculum document below.

Key Documents

Entire PE Curriculum - PDF Version

To find out more about our curriculum, please contact the school office.