Physical Education Curriculum Intent

Knightlow recognises the fundamental importance of Physical Education in a child’s physical, social and emotional development. We fully support the Ofsted guidance that Physical Education should be a part of every child’s entitlement and as such it is our intention that every child experience a broad range of physical and sports opportunities in order to develop an outstanding level of physical literacy and the knowledge, skills and enjoyment that will ignite a life-long positive relationship with physical activity and sport.

We believe that a high-quality PE curriculum inspires children to succeed and excel in physically demanding activities and competitive sports, which in turn, will help them to build important life skills such as resilience, tenacity and determination. We wish to support our pupils’ health and fitness and provide them with opportunities to become physically confident. It is our aim to inspire our pupils to be involved in competitive sport and other activities to help build character and embed values such as good sportsmanship and respect.

Physical Education Curriculum Implementation

• A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth in the different subject areas.  A wide range of sports and activities are delivered from Reception to Year 6 enabling pupils to develop their knowledge and skills in physical education in a variety of different areas.
• Our partnership with Harris School Sports Partnership and specialised sports coach supports and delivers lessons some of our physical education lessons across KS1 and KS2.  This ensures pupils are receiving high quality Physical Education in sport specific areas and also teachers are receiving CPD whilst the sessions are being delivered. 
• As a Games Mark Gold school we fully recognise and uphold its core values of Passion, Self Belief, Respect, Honesty, Determination and Teamwork. These values are realised through a wide range of opportunities to compete at both intra and inter-school level, making strong links with both local and wider communities.
• In addition our extensive extra-curricular offer enables pupils to develop their individual physical skills, experience new/different activities and develop skills of collaboration and teamwork.
• Leadership skills are also developed in all pupils as they work systematically to complete their Leadership Awards. Pupils in Year 2 and 6 are also trained to lead extra-curricular activities with younger children in their Key Stage during lunchtimes. Knightlow’s core Christian Values of Love, Hope, Joy and Forgiveness underpin all learning in and across the PE curriculum developing passion, determination, enjoyment and good sportspersonship.
• Pupils are encouraged to take part in competitive sport.  Upon joining the school each pupil is allocated a ‘House’.  Each term the pupils compete in a variety of different sports and can earn house points for their house.  At the end of the school year pupils also compete in a fun/ competitive school games event.  Sport Ambassadors are recruited from each year and are asked to help plan sports day for their class and set up activities on the day.
• All children from Reception to Year 6 are encouraged to take part our intensive 2 week swimming lessons each academic year in a pop up pool. Pupils will be able to swim at least 25 metres before the end of Year 6 and will know how to remain safe in and around water. Due to the intensive lessons, children are given the opportunity to reinforce their knowledge and practice their skills through keep up sessions.
• Year 6 are provided with ‘Bikeability’ session which aims to develop mastery in cycle handling in an off-road environment and prepare riders for cycling on the road.

Physical Education Curriculum Implementation

• Our PE Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.
• We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different physical activity areas and like other subjects discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.
• If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
  - A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.
  - Pupil discussions about their learning.
  - The annual tracking of standards across the curriculum.
• The impact of our P.E curriculum is also measured in the uptake of our afterschool clubs and participation in inter school sports competitions.  Each year we aim for 50% of pupils to have attended a sports club or competed against another school in a sport.  Participation levels are tracked by our specialised sports coach.
• External measures are also used to measure the impact of out P.E curriculum.  Each year we apply for the School Games Award.  This recognises high quality provision in school with either a bronze, silver or gold award.  We have achieved the Gold award for our high-quality physical education, school sport and inclusion.