Our Lady of Hartley Catholic Primary SchoolTogether in faith, love and learning…
Physical Education
Introduction
Physical Education is defined by the Association for Physical Education (AFPE) as, 'the planned progressive learning that takes place in school curriculum timetabled time and which is delivered to all pupils. It includes 'learning to move' (i.e becoming more physically competent) and 'moving to learn' (e.g learning through movement)'.
Physical Education at Our Lady of Hartley
At Our Lady of Hartley Catholic Primary School, we understand the importance Physical Education (PE) plays in the curriculum and are dedicated to provide all children with opportunities to engage fully within the P.E Curriculum. We believe that PE should develop the whole child through their ‘head, hands and heart’.
PE at Our Lady of Hartley enables children to become confident and creative decision makers; it allows children to develop their skill through knowledge and understanding; it develops their social and emotional well-being and instils values of sportsmanship, fairness and respect.
Every week, the children have two PE lessons and are taught a wide range of sports (for more information, please see the long term plan below in the 'Key Documents' section). Where possible, sports have been selected that have allow us to forge links with the local community. For example, tennis has been chosen due to our proximity to Hartley Country Club (which offers tennis coaching for all primary ages), cricket has been chosen due to our affiliation with Kent Cricket Club through the Chance to Shine charity and rugby has been chosen due to the array of local rugby clubs (including New Ash Green and Gravesend).
The children will also have opportunities to participate in class competitions and competitions against schools in the local area. For more information on this topic, please see the School Sports section of our website.
Swimming
We are incredibly proud of our swimming provision at Our Lady of Hartley and are collaborating closely with our local swimming centre. Due to the Covid-19 impact, changes have been made to the provision of swimming and a new approach will be undertaken to ensure all children are exposed to high quality swimming lessons.
Children in Year 3 and Year 4 complete two two-week swimming blocks. This will allow the children to swim everyday for an hour instead of every week for half an hour. After trialling this two week swimming block last academic year we have found that the intensive course has a more significant impact on children’s ability and progress. Alongside the fact the children thoroughly enjoy being able to visit the pool everyday for two weeks.
As a result of the interruptions the children experienced due to Covid-19, this year we will also be sending some our Year 5 students to attend a two-week booster block to ensure they reach their targets.
For more information about swimming and water safety attainment at Our Lady of Hartley, please click here.
PE in the Early Years
Under the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, Physical Development is one of the three ‘prime areas’ of learning. The document goes on to define Physical Development:
‘Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity6, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.’
Physical development is then further broken down into the following two categories:
Moving and handling: children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.
Health and self-care: children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.
At Our Lady of Hartley, we are big advocates of encouraging and developing PE in the Early Years though a mixture of adult led sessions and child initiated play.
Alongside a variety of activities within both the inside and outside learning environments encouraging children to develop co-ordination, the children have weekly P.E. lessons in which a variety of skills are taught. These skills are built upon when the children go up to Year 1. In this way, Our Lady of Hartley is a school that is very much built from the bottom up.
Alongside P.E. lessons, a variety of different learning opportunities are used to teach health and self-care. We fully understand the importance of learning these life skills which seem more pertitnant now than ever before.
Relevant documents
Further Information
For more information about Physical Education (PE), school sport or opportunities for physical activity at Our Lady of Hartley, please click the links below:
Cross Curricular Links
Geography
There are lots of planned opportunities for cross curricular learning between geography and P.E. Particularly when the Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA) units of work are taught. During these lessons, children develop their map reading abilities using our school orienteering maps. Skills covered during these sessions include (but are not limited to): identifying terrain, finding a location on a map, using a legend (map key), directions, how to use a compass, 4-figure and 6-figure grid references and how to use orienteering signs.
During these lessons, children use scaled maps of our school environment that have been created by experts. This gives children the chance to use real maps of familiar environment and gives them the best opportunity to develop their ability to use such skills.
P.E in Action
Please watch some of the videos and scroll through some of the photographs of a selection of our P.E. lessons.
Year 6 Dance
Year 6 have been learning how to develop a group dance to tell a story. They used West Side Story as the inspiration for their performances,
Year 1 Dance
Year 1 have been learning how to dance at different levels, how to dance at different speeds and how to perform using different body parts. In this particular lesson we were learning how to dance in canon.
Year 1 Net games (send and return)
Year 1 have been learning how to send an object with a hand or a bat. They have been thinking about using their feet to move into position and using a variety of different returns.
Year 5 Rugby (invasion games)
Year 5 have been learning how to combine different rugby skills such as catching and quickly passing in one movement.
Year 5 Gymnastics
Year 5 have been learning how to develop sequences as individuals and in groups. They have been thinking about how to include compositional ideas into their routines.
Warm Up Activities
We always warm up before participating in exercise. Please see below a small selection of warm up games that we play at Our Lady of Hartley.
Top Tips for Staying Healthy and Active
Eating well and staying active are really important for our bodies and minds. Exercise builds the brain.
It is recommended that child are physically active for an hour every day, with thirty minutes of this taking place in school.
Here is a list of things that we promote and encourage at Our Lady of Hartley to keep our children healthy and active!
- Eating five different coloured pieces of fruit and vegetables a day 🥕🥦🍎🍇🍌
- Planning meals using guidance from the eat-well plate to ensure a balanced diet 🍽
- Drinking between 1 and 2 litres of water a day 💧
- Promoting meat-free Mondays 🌮🥗🥙
- Promoting healthy snacks at break-time 🍓🥝🍒🍉🍊
- Teaching one hour PE lessons, twice a week 🎾🏑⚾️🏏
- Completing the Daily Mile – Jogging and walking around the school playground for 15 laps 🏃♀️ 🏃♂️
- Offering children opportunities to join active after school clubs such as football, golf, dance and judo ⚽️⛳️🩰🥋
- Playing exercise videos for children through-out the day from ‘Go Noodles’, ‘BBC Super Movers’ or ‘Joe Wicks’ 5 Minute Move Videos’ 💃
- Taking Whitby for a walk around the school grounds 🐶
- Promoting active break times and lunchtimes 🤾♂️🤾♀️
- Offering a dance club and football club at lunch time 🩰⚽️
- Providing opportunities for children to be active in a lesson e.g. – standing up to answer a question 👩🏼🏫
- Teaching times-tables actively eg – recall whilst marching/jogging/stretching arms 🙆♀️ 🙆♂️
- Regular stretching opportunities through-out lessons 🤸♀️
- Encouraging children to walk to and from school 🚶♀️🚶♂️