Intent

At Adlington Primary School, we aim to engage, motivate and inspire children to develop a love of physical exercise and games. We recognise the benefits of a strong Physical Education curriculum and extra-curricular activity on raising children's aspirations and self-esteem. We want to develop children's experiences and enable them to achieve personal successes. We have created a developmentally appropriate curriculum focusing on learning through PE and sport. This will enable children to be physically literate leading to the development of a healthy, active lifestyle.

PE teaching at Adlington Primary School aims to follow the requirements of the National Curriculum for Physical Education; providing opportunities for all pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in a range of sports and other activities build character, and help to embed values such as fairness and respect. 

Our PE curriculum is based on our mission statement 'Aspire, Persevere, Succeed'. 

Implementation

Our PE curriculum is designed to both fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Physical Education, and to provide experiences that engage, inspire and motivate all children here at Adlington Primary School. 

We follow the Lancashire Scheme of Work units for PE and supplement teaching with outside specialist coaches such as, Chorley School Sports Partnership, The Football Development Programme and All Stars Cricket through the use of our allocated PE and Sport premium funding. The Lancashire Scheme of Work has been adapted in light of our school structure and fully meets the needs of our pupils. Learning has been carefully considered, mapped out and sequenced through each Key Stage in order to ensure coverage of skills and clear progression. We recognise that PE teaching may need repetition and development, therefore Fundamental Skills are repeated through year groups. This enables children to develop and reinforce their understanding of Physical Education in order to improve. 

EYFS are taught alongside the Year 1 children however they build upon the Fundamental Skills for Early Years, it has been planned so that there are clear links between EYFS and Year 1. KS2 has been split into lower and upper Key Stage, this enables children to develop those skills from KS1 and begin to apply in competitive games. Children in KS2 also take part in a block of swimming lessons at Horwich Leisure Centre. We use PE Passport to support our PE planning, and units of work are progressive. Children build upon the skills they learned in the previous year. 

Throughout Physical Education lessons, pupils will learn key skills and life lessons. For example, these include resilience, sportsmanship, learning to lose and perseverance. In Key Stage 2 we introduce competitive games and activities to help build self-esteem. Children will learn what it is like to be part of a team, how to work together and how to win/lose in the correct manner. All pupils are taught fundamental skills such as throwing, catching, balance, co-ordination and jumping in each topic and are then linked to a sport. Pupils learn a range of, and take part in, different sports and activities throughout their Adlington journey. This increases their knowledge and understanding on the rules and tactics involved in each game. Physical activities include dance, games, gymnastics swimming and water safety, athletics and outdoor adventure activities.

Leading an active and healthy lifestyle is at the heart of our Physical Education teaching and learning, and this is promoted throughout school in various parts of our curriculum. For example in Food Technology in our Design Technology curriculum, in our PSHE curriculum during our ‘Healthy Me’ topic, and as well as in our Science curriculum. We also encourage all children to have at least 30 active minutes per day through different activities such as brain breaks, active phonics and outdoor learning.  

Impact

We aspire for all our children to be engaged, motivated and happy when it comes to Physical Education. We aim for all our children to have secured age-related skills and knowledge before they leave our school. This equips them with the ability to successfully prepare for a healthy and physical life ahead in which they can make informed choices about physical activity. In addition to this we strive for our children to be knowledgeable about healthy competition, team building and resilience in the wider world.

The impact of our Physical Education curriculum can be measured and monitored in a variety of different ways including; learning walks, PE Passport scrutiny, data analysis and tracking and pupil interviews. It is the responsibility of the subject leader to triangulate this evidence to ensure consistency across the whole school.

Teachers use the PE Passport to record children’s assessments, they grade children bronze, silver or gold for each different skill. A child's passport follows their journey through Adlington Primary school therefore, teachers are able to plan using these, focusing on particular areas of weakness for their cohort. Teachers are able to refer to the Physical Education progression of skills document (Year 1 to Year 6) and EYFS Early Learning Goals when making judgements. This document breaks down the National Curriculum objective statements and supports teachers when assessing pupil progress. We monitor and assess children’s learning throughout each PE lesson. All assessment data is used to inform future curriculum planning, outlining how support/challenge can be provided to meet the needs of our pupils. Chorley School Sports Partnership support our school with assessments and in particular perform baseline assessments in Year 2, this allows the Year 2 teacher to plug any gaps and focus learning on certain areas of the curriculum before those children move to Key Stage 2.

Throughout PE lessons children are actively involved in their target making and progress, teachers provide ‘in-the-moment’ feedback and support. At Adlington Primary School we strive to include all children of differing abilities in Physical Education and provision is made for SEND children in the school.

We endeavour to raise the profile of Physical Education in school by ensuring that we celebrate success and offer a wide range of opportunities for all of our children. We attend inclusion festivals, as well as competitions at local high schools to give our children the opportunity to compete against other schools. We run extra-curricular sporting clubs throughout the year such as judo, fencing and tag-rugby; as well as a lunchtime club which is organised as an intervention to support targeted children. Able, Gifted and Talented assessments are also carried out in Year 6, this informs us about who need further challenge during lessons. We have a sports council who aim to raise the profile of sporting competitions/clubs and Physical Education during assemblies and Year 5 and 6 children are PAL leaders for the younger children here at Adlington. PAL leaders run activities at dinner-times to encourage physical activity and competition. We also hold a special Sports Week event each year as this is vital in ensuring our whole school community is actively involved in Physical Education.