PE

Physical Education at Elms Farm

I am Mr. Stratford, and I lead PE at Elms Farm. I enjoy sport outside of school, taking part in a range of sports in a number of teams and so being able to bring the children the opportunity to do the same is a real inspiration. My favourite sports are football and cricket, but I love watching and playing all sports!

Our aim is to develop pupils’ competence and confidence in their understanding and application of Physical Education skills and knowledges across a wide variety of sports and activities. We aim to promote the physical literacy of every child, through physical development, understanding how the body works and a healthy relationship with physical activity, where children develop a love of sport and exercise (Sport Australia, 2019). Our school aims to encourage learners to be creative, competitive, co-operative and physically active to support their holistic development.

We create a range of opportunities for children to be active, which cater for the needs and interests of all children. We believe that the exposure to these opportunities will encourage and promote healthy, active lifestyles and a lifelong engagement with physical activity (Bandiera et al 2022).

Our P.E. curriculum is tailored towards our community, with our setting and community at the forefront of our thinking. Our aim is to provide children with a range of sporting opportunities that are catered to promoting clear exit routes to continued participation. We believe these school and sports club links to be key to encouraging a lifelong love of sport and physical activity in our children (Taylor 2015).

High levels of physical activity are at the heart of high-quality Physical Education and Class Teachers/Sports Coaches aim to ensure children are physically active for at least eighty percent of their lessons. The SHARP PE principles are used to underpin this in all lessons (Powell 2016). This is in line with our core belief that children develop in a sporting context through their interactions with the environments that are created for them (Kirk 2002).

Our Sports Coaches and Teachers deliver two hours of high-quality timetabled P.E. each week in line with government recommendations. In addition, extra physical activity is provided through our physical activity programme, while extra P.E. activities are provided through our after-school club provision. At our school one hour per week is taught by specialist Sport coaches, alongside support staff; with the other lesson taught by the class teacher on a similar skill. This parallel sports approach is key to exposing pupils to a wider range of sports and activities, while allowing them to apply taught skills and knowledges in a wider range of contexts to support development (Young et al 2019).

Taught PE Units

Year 6 children go swimming in Autumn Term, with the aim of these children achieving National Curriculum standards. In Spring Term, Year 5 children have their lessons and Year 4 pupils have the opportunity to swim in the Summer Term. We believe offering children the opportunities to build on their swimming skills across these years to be beneficial in ensuring they reach National Curriculum standards by the end of year 6. These lessons take place at Stechford Leisure Centre and specialist swimming teachers support our own Teachers/Sports Coaches in delivering lessons.

Children have the opportunity to partake in a range of extra-curricular sports clubs, run by both specialised coaches and school staff. These range from inclusive clubs focused on giving children the opportunities to participate in as many sports as possible to competitive teams, where children compete in organised leagues against other schools. These clubs include KS1/KS2 multi sports, netball, tag rugby, dance, cricket and boys’/girls’ football etc.

As part of our continued participation in the School Games Award, children represent the school in a range of inter school festivals and competitions. This year alone, we have attended events in swimming, football, multi skills, indoor athletics, tag rugby, basketball etc. This, along with our intra school events, have contributed to the school gaining the School Games Gold Award in previous years.

We are also committed to equality in our offer of PE and sport for all. To this end, children are offered all opportunities to partake in sport equally through our extra-curricular offer. This is especially evident in the school achieving the equal access award for our school football offer.

We are also fortunate to work with a number of sports-specific coaches who deliver sessions to our children. An example of this can be seen in Year 4, where Warwickshire County Cricket Club have delivered cricket sessions to supplement their curriculum objectives. We have also recently worked with specialist Tennis and Yoga coaches.