Intent - The vision

At Holy Trinity Pewley Down School, we aim to foster children’s innate love of physical movement. Using our core values to underpin our curriculum, we ask our children to think about their physical education in four main ways:

Physical

• Enabling children to explore and develop physical skills with increasing control and coordination
• Developing the way children perform fundamental skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching

Social

• Fostering the enjoyment that taking part in physical activity and sport can bring
• Encouraging children to work independently and with others (pairs/groups)
• Developing children's enjoyment of physical activity through creativity and imagination

Emotional

• Applying rules and conventions for different activities 
• Developing an understanding of how to succeed in a range of physical activities, and how to deal with success and defeat

Thinking

• Showing children how to improve the quality and control of their performance 
• Teaching children to recognise and describe how their bodies feel during exercise 
• Learning how to make healthy lifestyle choices

We want children to embrace their physicality and to learn to control and understand their bodies. We believe that primary school physical education should encourage children to develop a lifelong love of sport and exercise that will keep them safe, happy and well for life. We aim to do this by giving every child the opportunities to explore a range of activities and sports from individual pursuits, such as dance and gymnastics to team games like netball and hockey.

Implementation - How we achieve our goal

All classes take part in at least two hours of National Curriculum PE per week. There are many other ways that our physical activity time is enhanced:

• A wide range of extracurricular clubs, most of which are free
• Active breaks
• Break and lunchtime play equipment
• Residential educational visits
• Regular participation in intra and inter school events and fixtures
• Strong connections with local sports organisations and clubs

As required by the National Curriculum, we teach dance, games, gymnastics, swimming and water safety, outdoor and adventurous activities and athletics. 

At HTPD, we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in PE lessons. As previously stated, our principal aim is to develop children's love of physical activity. We do this by building their knowledge, skills and understanding of what it means to be physically active. This is done through a mixture of whole class teaching and individual, pair or group activities. We encourage children to evaluate their own work, as well as the work of other children. Within lessons, we give children the opportunity both to collaborate and to compete whilst using a wide range of resources.

Using our structured progression map, we plan PE activities that build upon the prior learning of the children. Children of all abilities develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in each activity area. Pre-teaching and progression is planned for, so that children are increasingly challenged as they move through school. 

In the early years foundation stage (EYFS), physical development is a prime area of learning. EYFS planning and teaching provides opportunities for children to be active and interactive. It aims to develop fundamental movement skills. Children are also helped to understand the importance of physical activity. They learn to make healthy choices in relation to exercise and food. We aim to deliver this within a mix of adult led and child initiated activities.

Impact - How do we know our vision has come to fruition?

We are a school that embraces Physical Education and believe in its power to improve outcomes for all children. Here are a few of the ways in which we can show our commitment to our intent:

• Sports funding has been used to employ two PE specialists to ensure that PE is being taught consistently throughout school.
• Sports funding has been used to allow staff a significant amount of CPD training in Physical Education. 
• Sports funding has been used to purchase equipment and train young leaders
• The school offers a broad range of extracurricular provision which are all very well attended – we run three football clubs, two running clubs, three netball clubs, a rugby club, a hockey club, a frisbee club – all of which are free to attend and run by teachers at the school.
• We have a full competitive fixture list with opportunities for children across a range of abilities.

Healthy week takes place at Pewley Down each year – with a series of sessions aimed at healthy bodies and healthy minds.

For more information about how we prioritise sport more widely at HTPD, see the Sports Page.