Our vision as a school is to provide our pupils with the very best education in all aspects of learning and to encourage them to make the most of every opportunity to be the best that they can be. At Our Lady & St Patrick's, we are committed to helping our children thrive socially, emotionally and physically, in addition to achieving well. 

A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. It should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect. 

The development of PE at Our Lady & St Patrick's Catholic Primary School has been significantly enhanced by the introduction of the Government's PE funding in 2013; this funding has been key in providing the pupils at our school with the very best opportunities in physical education.  

Aims

Through the teaching of Physical Education we aim to: 

• Provide ALL children with wonderful opportunities to engage in a variety of physical activities
• Help pupils develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
• Ensure pupils are physically active for sustained periods of time
• Provide opportunities for pupils to engage in competitive sports and activities
• Ensure our children look forward to their PE lessons each week and enjoy developing physically and socially
• Ensure pupils understand and value the importance of physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle that they go on to lead healthy, active lives

Teaching and Learning 
 

During their time at Our Lady & St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, children will take part in a wide range of sporting activities, building on skills from previous years.

We are members of our local Sports Partnership and benefit from a PE Specialist Teacher who provides CPD and support to all teachers.

 
We recognise that all classes have children of widely differing abilities, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability and experience of the child. We achieve this in a variety of ways, by; 

• Targeting gifted and talented children to achieve at a higher standard through support and challenge in after-school clubs and competitions
• Setting tasks of increasing difficulty, evidenced in planning through differentiation and expected outcomes
• Providing apparatus which are suitable for the ability of the child, taking into account their individual needs 
• Providing appropriate adult support to scaffold learning and to aid the work of the individual or group 

Ultimately, we want all our pupils to value individual progress and promote the ethos that

“It's not about being better than someone else; it's about being better than you were the day before”. 
 

Planning 
 

Our Lady & St Patrick's follows the National Curriculum and creates a long term plan developed in consultation with our local Sports Partnership.

Please see our Long Term PE  Plan, at the top of the page

We employ a professional sports coach, professional gymnastics coach and a professional dance teacher, who deliver weekly PE lessons in school, as well as using coaches for specific sequences of sports lessons aimed at different year groups and key stages (for example Kinder Cricket, with Chris).

Where teachers are delivering their own PE lessons, they use the 'Rising Stars' PE scheme of work to underpin their planning and teaching.

Our whole-school PE Long Term Plan is followed at all times, to ensure coverage and progression and so that the skills and content studied build upon prior learning.

We offer opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit, and we ensure that the planned progression built into the scheme of work offers the children an increasing challenge as they move through school. 

• Long term plans map out the curriculum content
• Medium term plans identify learning objectives and outcomes for each unit. They also indicate links to other curriculum areas where relevant.
• Short term plans are prepared by individual teachers. They highlight the specific skills and learning objectives for that lesson, apparatus and any planned differentiation. 

 
Foundation Stage- We teach physical education in foundation stage by linking skills and activities to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals. 

Extra- Curricular Activities 
 

We have a wide range of extra curricular sports activities on offer throughout the school year and consult with parents and carer to ensure that we are effectively targeting all groups of pupils. We also have a number of successful competitive sports teams and have developed a culture and love of sport in our school community. 

Assessment and Monitoring 
 

Teachers assess children against clear learning objectives and success criteria and children are encouraged to self and peer assess.

As children move through school, we carefully track their progress and attainment in PE, using our Skills Progression document for PE - please see a copy of this at the top of the page.

 
The subject leader is responsible for monitoring attainment and progress of pupils and the quality of the teaching in physical education. The outcomes of which are collated in the subject leadership folder and fed back to staff at an appropriate time. The PE leader is also responsible for supporting colleagues in the teaching and learning of Physical Education and helping to ensure they make the most of the CPD opportunities available to them. 

In addition to providing strategic direction for PE in school, the subject leader is also responsible for monitoring the impact of School Sports Funding. To find out about how the PE and Sport Funding, given to all primary schools by the government, has been used to improve the provision in our school, please refer to our PE & School Sports Funding Report, published in a separate area of this website, by following the link below:

When the Covid-19 Pandemic hit, it was more important than ever to encourage everyone at Our Lady & St Patrick's to remain active and healthy.

Take a look at the suggestions on the following page for ways we supported our children to stay active at home: