Physical Education
Our PE Coordinator is Mrs Clements.
INTENT
In PE at St Joseph’s children will experience a wide range of activities in dance, gymnastics, games and athletics. Swimming is also provided in Key Stage 2. A wide and varied curriculum is offered in games across the school to allow pupils to develop the skills of hitting, catching, passing, stopping, defence and attack.
Children are given opportunities to compete against other schools in team games and competitions. We have regular after school clubs in PE which vary throughout the year. We also have visits from qualified coaches who can offer expertise in a particular sporting field. Good links with our Catholic Cluster schools have also been forged and maintained. Our aim is to help children see fitness as a lifelong skill and to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle.
Implementation
Our PE curriculum is planned in line with the National Curriculum programmes of study and contain elements of: running, jumping, throwing and catching as well as developing balance, agility, co-ordination, attacking and defending in Key Stage 1. Key Stage 2 moves onto focusing on these skills within competitive team games, when performing routines and taking part in outdoor and adventurous. Key Stage 2 also has a deeper focus on achieving and beating personal best.
St Joseph’s aim to incorporate PE across a range of lessons, keeping children active and alert throughout the day. We do this through our Daily Mile, Go Noodle, Talk4Writing and Jump Start Johnny. The Daily Mile was an initiative we adopted in 2018. The Daily Mile is very simple to start in a school. Every child in a school or nursery goes out each day in the fresh air to run or jog at their own pace for 15 minutes. It is not competitive though some will compete. Most children will average a mile in the 15 minutes, with some doing more and some doing less. It is not PE, sport or cross-country but physical activity in a social setting which is aimed at improving the children’s physical, social, emotional and mental health, and wellbeing. The children run in their ordinary school clothes with trainers being ideal but not essential. It can help children to focus and concentrate in the classroom and raise their attainment. And most importantly, the children really enjoy it. The aim of taking part in this initiative is to begin to combat recent concerns around physical inactivity and childhood obesity.
The 6 core values of School Games are also focused on and implemented within other lessons at St Joseph’s. These are: self-belief, teamwork, determination, honesty, passion and respect.
IMPACT
All children at St. Joseph’s receive a broad and balanced curriculum. Every child, regardless of year group or ability, accesses all subjects on offer and PE is developed throughout the curriculum. Children work both independently and as part of a group, ensuring skills of communication, resilience and teamwork are promoted in PE. Children are enthused and engaged in the wide variety of sports and activities they are exposed to in PE lessons and clubs – some of which they will never have tried before.
School Games is a government led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to development of competition across their school and into the community. School Games aims to keeping competitive sport at the heart of schools, providing more young people with the opportunity to compete and achieve their personal best. The School Games events consist of four unique types of competition: intra-school competitions, local inter-school competitions, county finals, and the School Games National Finals. For the past 2 years, St Joseph’s has received GOLD in our School Games mark.
Active 30:30
The Government’s plan has set out the ambition for all children to achieve 60 minutes of physical activity every day, with schools being responsible for delivering 30 of these active minutes. Active 30:30 is our response to this ambition, and has been developed to help schools reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity in young people outside of timetabled curriculum PE. It also addresses how to help influence the remaining 30 active minutes to be achieved outside of school.
