PHYSICAL EDUCATION AT OLC

OLC PHYSICAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

“Sport teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose - it teaches you about life.”

~ Billie Jean King ~

OUR ETHOS

At Our Lady of Compassion School, in line with our Catholic ethos, we believe that everyone has a special part to play in God’s plan. As a fully inclusive school, we welcome all children with their individual strengths and needs and strive to give them the best opportunities to be able to participate in school life, progress and achieve their full potential. We believe that all children are entitled to a rich and diverse curriculum that is delivered through high quality teaching and differentiated to meet the needs of all children. The school has a supportive ethos, and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others.

OUR CURRICULUM INTENT

At Our Lady of Compassion School, we consider PE as being a main driving factor for our children’s physical and mental well-being. The PE curriculum aims to inspire all children to enjoy, succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities; we therefore place high importance on sports and physical activity, building opportunities for children to compete against each other, in school, within our MAC schools and against other local schools. Our curriculum is designed with inclusivity in mind, ensuring full engagement for children who are less eager to participate in physical skills and team sports. To support us in achieving this aim, we implement Real PE, a multi-skills programme that is fully aligned to the National Curriculum and that develops the children’s ability in the core skills of agility, balance, coordination, healthy competition and cooperative learning. This is implemented through comprehensive primary PE lesson plans, ideas, games and activities for all the year groups. There is a strong emphasis on it being a child-centred approach, including, challenging and supporting EVERY child.

Real PE helps develop physical literacy, knowledge, emotional and thinking skills for PE, sport and life. This approach is designed to ensure that all children, regardless of their abilities, can engage in meaningful and progressively challenging skills that can be applied across a range of games – eg the children develop their ability to engage in any striking and fielding game by learning a range of skills that can be applied to different contexts. There is also the opportunity for children to work on dance and gymnastics throughout each year; children in our UKS2 classes also participate in a swimming programme that is separate to our Real PE programme.

Our PE curriculum also focusses on the children’s fitness and wellbeing, so that the children can develop into active and healthy individuals with a good understanding of how to look after themselves physically and mentally. At OLC, we also implement iMoves to support the children’s emotional wellbeing through brain breaks and active bursts, laying the foundations for healthier and happier children.

Lessons within the Real PE programme are adaptable - a session can have children working on a wide range of skills so that all children are included and all children are challenged. Regular half-termly assessments inform the teachers’ plans for upcoming lessons based on the children’s acquisition of knowledge and skills – they also support the teachers to measure the impact of their teaching.

We also encourage the children to spend time in outdoor play and activities during lunchtime and playtime. We have therefore invested in a range of experiences and opportunities to support the children to spend their free time in active play.

Overall, our PE curriculum will therefore ensure that all pupils:

• develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
• are physically active for sustained periods of time
• engage in competitive sports and activities which will help build character and embed values.
• lead healthy, active lives.
• understand how physical activity can support good mental health and wellbeing
• become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness.

OUR CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

Real PE progressively builds skills across six foci as follows:

• Personal
• Social
• Cognitive
• Creative
• Applying Physical
• Health and Fitness

These skills build in complexity from Foundation Stage through to Year 6 in small increments designed to continually enhance the children’s knowledge in a way that is achievable – children are able to progress at their own pace, supporting our culture of inclusion and growth mindset where children understand what they need to do to continue to develop their skills and have the ability to pursue this.

The children engage in a Real PE session a week, focussing on the basic agility, balance and co-ordination skills necessary to achieve in all areas of the sporting curriculum. We use the Real Gym to focus on Gymnastics skills such as developing flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance. The children also engage in one fitness lesson weekly.

The following is implemented to effectively ensure that the children have a successful learning journey, where they are consistently given the opportunities to know more and remember more:

• Real PE training is given to all staff – staff are also supported by the PE Lead who engages with the staff in team teaching where necessary and appropriate.
• PE resources are regularly audited to ensure that the teachers are able to teach effectively and the children have the tools necessary to engage with their learning.
• Sports based session are a regular feature of the PE curriculum where children have the opportunity to apply the Real PE skills learnt.
• Lunchtime enrichment has provided KS2 children with further sporting opportunities through a range of activities organised by a Sports Coach funded through Sports Premium.
• An outdoor gym was recently installed on the KS2 playground to enhance the children’s fitness.
• Year 5 and Year 6 children have the opportunity to attend swimming lessons to ensure that all children learn to swim competently, confidently and proficiently.
• The children engage in competitive and co-operative physical activities, in a range of challenging situations. Each year, the children take part in a variety of sports events with children from our sister schools within the MAC or from local schools organised by South Solihull School Sport Partnership.
• Children in KS2 also have the opportunity to engage in various sports organised by coaches from South Solihull School Sport Partnership; cricket, golf…
• Children have the opportunity to engage in after school clubs within various sports; eg netball, boys football, girls football, Gaelic football, multisports.
• Four children from every class are elected House Captains, one for every house, St Joseph, St Anne, St Raphael, St Gabriel: https://www.olc.solihull.sch.uk/house-captains/.
• Sports day takes place on an annual basis and is organised within phases, to give the children the opportunity to showcase their learnt skills, promoting a healthy attitude towards competition.
• Regular monitoring of high quality teaching and learning in PE is carried out through observations and learning walks, as well as through staff and pupil voices.

OUR CURRICULUM IMPACT

The impact of Real PE is evident across the school. It has developed a love for physical learning and has allowed staff as well as children to really develop a love of activity. It has had a massive impact on the ability of every teacher to lead sessions and to challenge and improve their practice - it has also introduced a high level of excitement, creativity and fun into the sessions, with children eagerly awaiting their PE lessons.

The expected continued impact of following the Real PE programme is that:

• the children will be given the opportunities to enhance their physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, Sport and life.
• the children will develop fundamental skills, will be increasingly competent and confident, accessing a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others.
• as they move through the year groups, the children will continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and link them to make actions and sequences in movement.
• the children will develop their enjoyment and confidence in PE skills, inspiring them to lead a healthy, active lifestyle, achieving sporting success both individually and working with others.
• the children will develop increased levels of stamina and fitness.
• the children will also experience friendly and competitive tournaments within the school and the wider community, and learn respectable competition attributes.