St Christopher’s RC Primary & Nursery School

P.E. Curriculum (Curriculum Designer & Lead: Ian Noone)

At St Christopher’s the Physical Education curriculum inspires all our pupils to succeed and excel in sports and other physically demanding activities. It promotes physical skill, physical development and knowledge of the body in action. Physical education provides opportunities for our pupils to be creative in such areas as dance and devising their own games. There are plenty of opportunities for children to be competitive and to face up to different challenges as individuals, in groups and in teams. Giving pupils the opportunities to compete in sports and other activities enables pupils to build character and help embed values such as fairness and respect.

At St Christopher’s we believe that physical education is a vital and unique contribution to a pupil’s physical and emotional health and development; even more so now, in a time of increasing technology when physical exercise is often substituted by computer games. Curriculum PE is delivered using "Complete Sports2 planning. This is to ensure that a high standard of PE is taught in school. 

All pupils have at least two hours of P.E. per week. We encourage all children to participate in all lessons and offer a varied range of activities to suit all abilities. The school also offers a large number of after-school sporting activities that are open to children.

Nursery and Reception
P.E. is a very important part of learning and children become more confident using gross and fine motor skills. By the end of their time in Reception class, they will have good coordination and control in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. Children will also be able to use various pieces of apparatus and be able to take part in dance and gymnastics.

Key Stage 1
KS1 follows a seasonal timetable for P.E. so that lessons aren’t interrupted by poor weather. Indoor lessons take place in Autumn 2 and Spring 1/2. We encourage and motivate all children to participate during the sessions and offer a broad curriculum to enable all children to feel motivated and comfortable in all areas of P.E. these include dance, gymnastics, ball skills and a continued focus on coordination and teamwork.

Key Stage 2
KS2 children are taught gymnastics, dance and games. They take part in a broad range of sports. In Year 3 and Year 4 the children are taught swimming. Gymnastics is well embedded in the school throughout KS2 following the school’s standard format that ensures progression.

In addition, at dinnertime, the children are taught by specialist P.E. teachers from Peak Active Sports who deliver training to the children. All children carry out ten to fifteen minutes of active exercise each afternoon to improve their energy levels and levels of concentration.

Progression
To encourage progression teachers to follow a format for all three disciplines and lessons are planned weekly to build on skills. This format is the same for each year group so that children come through school building on their previous skills. Staff also use the Complete P.E. curriculum to ensure that lessons are demanding and ensure progress.

Competition
The school takes part in a wide number of sporting competitions. We are part of the Catholic Schools Competitive Sports organisation and Tameside Sports Partnership.

Extra-Curricular Sports have been selected to give the children variety in sport. We offer sporting opportunities on different school nights.

Different Sports: We offer different sports for the children to experience. For instance, we visit an indoor skate park and parcel centre. We also visit the Manchester velodrome for BMX biking and in the summer do many outdoor adventure sports.