Teaching and learning style

At St Michael’s Church School, we use a variety of teaching styles which involve a mixture of class, group, pair and individual activities. At St Michael’s teachers model good skills and techniques and also draw attention to good examples of individual performance to use as good models for other children.

At St Michael’s Church School, we aim to teach high- quality lessons with the support from a PE scheme called PE Passport. All adults use the PE passport to help them to feel confident when teaching PE and provides them with the information they need to ensure they have good subject knowledge. From PE passport we have selected a breadth of PE units that are well sequenced and are progressive. This can be seen on the curriculum map which also contains the key concepts children need to be procedurally fluent in to work and think like sporting professionals. PE passport also provides cross curricular links to other subjects such as dance whilst recapping telling the time to direct their foot placement.

The key concepts that are covered throughout the progression of the PE curriculum are as follows:

• Physical skills

• Thinking skills

• Personal skills

• Health skills

Throughout the children’s PE lessons, they are encouraged to constantly be reflective on their learning and performance. The children evaluate their work as well as the work of their peers. This is a theme that runs throughout all the PE lessons provided by PE passport. Within lessons children have the opportunity both to collaborate and compete with each other, and they have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources.

Every lesson has a clear focus around a clear learning objective with success criteria communicated to the children which explains how the learners will achieve their learning objective.  

At St Michael’s Church School the activities are differentiated, appropriate to the needs and range of ability. In PE we do this by using the STEP framework (space, task, equipment and people). Each lesson always have a extension planned for the more able children to extend their learning where appropriate.

We demonstrate the learning via dialogue and demonstrations are used throughout the PE lessons so they expectations are clear to the children. Particular skills are modelled to the children and discussed so the children are aware of all aspects of this learning. Plenaries are used at the end of the session to reflect of the learning that has happened, self or peer evaluate the learning or suggest next steps for the lesson to come.

Early Years Foundation Stage

At St Michael’s Church School, in the EYFS, the area of learning related to Physical education provision is physical development. This area of learning aims to improve the coordination, control, manipulation and movement of children.

Key Stages 1 and 2

At St Michael’s Church School the physical education national curriculum objectives for key stage 1 are:

Knowledge, skills and understanding

Teaching should ensure that when evaluating and improving performance, connections are made between developing, selecting and applying skills, tactics and compositional ideas, and fitness and health.

Acquiring and developing skills

Children should be taught to:

a) Explore basic skills, actions and ideas with increasing understanding

b) Remember and repeat simple skills and actions with increasing control and coordination.

Selecting and applying skills, tactics and compositional ideas

Children should be taught to:

a) Explore how to choose and apply skills and actions in sequence and in combination

b) Vary the way they perform skills by using simple tactics and movement phrases

c) Apply rules and conventions for different activities.

Evaluating and improving performance

Children should be taught to:

a) Describe what they have done

b) Observe, describe and copy what others have done

c) Use what they have learnt to improve the quality and control of their work.

Knowledge and understanding of fitness and health

Children should be taught:

a) How important it is to be active

b) To recognise and describe how their bodies feel during different activities.

At St Michael’s Church School the physical education curriculum maps are derived from national curriculum programmes of study for physical education and the PE Passport. The curriculum map provides a structure for planning and states which areas of physical education are to be taught in each year group.

At St Michael’s Church School all children in key stages 1 and 2 take part in:

- Dance Activities

- Games Activities

- Gymnastic Activities.

In addition to this, at some time in key stage 2 children will participate in swimming, athletics and outdoor and adventure activities.

Not all aspects of physical education require the same amount of time or the same degree of continuity for progress to be made. Emphasis is placed on gymnastics activities, dance activities and games activities, to provide a foundation of basic movements and understanding.

The curriculum map makes provision for children to experience all areas of activity by the end of key stage 2.

Inclusion

At St Michael’s Church School, inclusion in physical activities means that all children have access to learning opportunities regardless of race, gender and ability. We aim to create an environment in which all children learn to respect and value each other and each other's interests. This is achieved by employing the following strategies:

• Having equal expectations of boys and girls – not letting girls opt out or boys dominate team organisation for example.

• Teaching mixed gender/ability groups and pairs.

• Structuring activities so that all are fully involved.

• Providing opportunities for children to present their work to others.

• Recognising the need to extend more able children and targeting them for school clubs/signposting to borough clubs.

• Anticipate needs and provide support as required. This could be the provision of specialist equipment, adult support or modified teaching programmes.

• Targeting particular children during playtimes and supporting them in physical play or during afterschool clubs.

Extra-curricular provision

At St Michael’s Church School we offer a wide range of extra-curricular P.E. activities:

• Football (girls and boys)

• Cricket (new to summer 2022)

• Multi sports

• Dodgeball

• Gymnastics

• Dance (seasonal)

• Hockey

Resources

All equipment is catalogued, and a list is available from the PE leader. The equipment suitability is reviewed to ensure it is appropriate to the range of ages, abilities and needs of children in order to enhance learning.

Children are encouraged to:

1. Look after resources

2. Use different resources to promote learning

3. Return all resources tidily and to the correct place (Staff to supervise with the support of a labelled PE shed)

4. Be told of any safety procedures relating to the carrying or handling of resources.

All our resources are looked after by PE monitors. Their responsibility is to look after the resources.

Planning, Assessment and Recording

At St Michael’s Church School planning is accessed via the PE Passport application. It follows our curriculum progression map and the progressions documents. Teachers will be making continual assessments of the children’s abilities throughout their school life.

 Further teacher assessments of the children’s P.E. abilities are made whilst selecting for a school team, whether it be for football, hockey or dance.

Overall progression in P.E. is commented upon through an annual written report to parents. Concerns or issues which may arise regarding P.E. will be dealt with in consultation with parents / guardians where appropriate.

Special Educational Needs

At St Michael’s Church School PE activities are particularly effective in the education of children with learning difficulties of any kind, ranging from physical to social to emotional problems. PE is broad and ‘open-ended’, providing opportunities to solve problems, to work independently, to work as a group and to be responsible for self-regulation. Most PE activities work well as class lessons and are appropriate for all children of any ability.