Physical Education
Intent
In Physical Education our overarching aim is to ensure physical activity and sport is embedded in to all of our pupils’ daily lives. We offer a broad range of activity areas across the curriculum to develop knowledge and understanding of our ability to participate in physical activity and sport. We also offer a busy extra-curricular programme that both complements and stretches our pupils’ learning experience within the subject; there are opportunities for competition and recreation in both team and individual activity areas. Performance, leadership and officiating play a huge part in our core programme and we encourage all of our pupils to engage with these three components as we believe that they help to create a well-rounded individual; the skills learned in Physical Education are transferrable to other subject areas and can be utilised Post-16. For those pupils who choose Examination PE as an option, we help pupils to delve further in to the body’s ability to perform in physical activity and sport having received a suitable underpinning at Key Stage 3.
Implementation
By the end of Year 11 we hope to create confident learners who engage regularly with physical activity and sport in a variety of roles. Pupils in Year 7, 8 and 9 are allocated four, one-hour periods of Physical Education per fortnight. In Years 7, 8 and 9, pupils are placed into two mixed ability classes from the year group. The majority of teaching is single sex, however there are opportunities for mixed gender PE in activity areas such as Athletics, Tennis and Rounders in the Summer Term. In Years 10 and 11, pupils have two hours per fortnight of Core PE; the focus is predominantly on physical activity and engagement. We aim to offer opportunities to participate in sports that pupils can easily continue with Post-16. In each unit, we assess the pupils in the first instance to benchmark their ability and then summatively assess the pupils at the end of each sporting activity to monitor their attainment and progress against their target grades.
Pupils who opt for GCSE PE have six extra lessons per fortnight and there are lessons for both the theory and practical components; as a department we follow the Pearson Edexcel Specification (1PE0). At the end of each unit, in both practical and theory, we summatively assess the pupils to monitor their attainment and progress against their target grades. These summative assessments assist us in generating the pupils’ final grades towards Component 3 (Practical Performance/NEA) and Component 4 (Personal Exercise Programme/NEA). Component 1 (Fitness and Body Systems) and Component 2 (Health and Performance) are assessed externally by two exams in the Summer of Year 11
Additional Provision
To support learning, a broad range of extra-curricular clubs and activities are on offer which supplement the curriculum focusing on key skills and techniques and building a cohesive team environment. There is an extensive competition fixture calendar that gives the pupils the opportunity to compete against other schools locally and across the county.
Within the school environment, interventions, including revision sessions, are used to enhance learning with the Key Stage 4 curriculum and there are opportunities for leadership and coaching within the school setting and with local clubs and sporting festivals.