At St Mary’s we believe it is important that as children grow and develop, they understand the importance of physical activity in developing and maintaining their health and well-being. We provide a full curriculum that supports pupils to become physically confident, reinforce health and fitness and develop individual talent.
Our Intent
St Mary’s vision is at the heart of our schools PE curriculum, as we strive for children to flourish and excel in a broad range of physical activities.
At St Mary’s we acknowledge that physical activities and sport are a vital part of a child’s life and lead to heathy and active lives. We provide a wide range of opportunities for children to find the right activity for them. We want to instill an enjoyment of physical activity, build their self-esteem, encourage team work and provide a sense of achievement. We aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum to allow children of all abilities to have access to a variety of games, dance, sport, swimming, gymnastic and fitness activities.
The St Mary’s PE curriculum encourages children to let their light shine, obtain new skills, build on their relationships with fellow peers and develop a positive wellbeing.
Our Implementation
P.E. is planned through Get Set 4 P.E. to cover all National Curriculum objectives through a variety of sports. Skills within each lesson build on previous learning. Most units (and when not, the skills from the unit are utilised in future lessons,) are revisited later in the Keystage to develop skills and tactics appropriate to the game or sport. Swimming lessons are delivered at Highbury Leisure Better Centre. All children in KS2 are given the opportunity to learn to swim, develop a range of strokes and understand aspects of the need for water safety. Experts in their field of practice are also used to support staff in the delivery of some parts of the P.E. curriculum. Cross curricular links for characteristics of the P.E. curriculum are developed in Science, Maths, Literacy and Topic.
Children are given the opportunity to experience and develop skills in a wide range of sporting activities. This occurs through delivery of the P.E. curriculum (Get Set 4 PE), involvement with lunchtime and after school activities. As the children move through the school, they continue to develop their gross and fine motor skills. Additional to this, a sense of fair play and sportsmanship is nurtured. All aspects of physical activity is underpinned by a drive to expend energy and exert the body and mind to develop fitness on a daily basis. The opportunity to take part in the daily mile and organised activities at lunchtime enable every child to have the opportunity to achieve this.
Adults across the school act as role models for P.E. by ensuring that children have access to good quality equipment, recognising and rewarding children for development during activities, wearing sports clothing for P.E. and taking children to extra-curricular competitions, as well as our off-site Sports day (in the summer term at Highbury Field’s).
St Mary’s has a tarmacked playground, football and basketball playground areas, climbing frames and a range of sports equipment to support the curriculum and extra-curricular activities. The P.E. Coordinator regularly checks and updates equipment. All classes are timetabled twice a week for P.E. sessions and participation in the daily mile twice a week.
Additional to progress made during lessons, all children encouraged to join the school football teams. We take part in regular school and borough competitions.
Our Impact
Assessment of skills, identified within the P.E. National Curriculum, is carried out lesson by lesson. The Get Set 4 P.E. scheme has clear success criteria for each lesson enabling staff to identify skills acquired and plan future lessons to build on those skills. Children are encouraged to peer assess, offering constructive feedback to aid further development during each lesson.
These judgments will be quality assured by subject leaders using first-hand evidence of how pupils are doing, drawing together evidence from lesson observations, evidence through photographs and pupil voice to monitor ongoing progress.
Assessments will inform the curriculum and whether children are ready for the next stage in the curriculum.
Our football team are very committed to training, we are very proud of reaching the semi-finals last year! We are very proud of our pupil achieving the award of ‘highest goal scorer’ in Islington!
Curriculum Information
For further information about our curriculum – please contact our PE Curriculum Leader, Chloe Hansen on 020 7359 1870 or email at school@stmarys.islington.sch.uk
