At St Thomas Primary School it is our aim to give all children the opportunity to develop their physical attributes in competitive sport and a range of other physical activities. We aim to develop children’s physical competence through opportunities to reflect and evaluate actions they have performed whilst being encouraged to be independent and resilient in their own learning. We strive to deliver high-quality teaching and learning opportunities, whilst demonstrating the benefits of physical exercise and a healthy, active lifestyle to instil a life-long passion for health and fitness in all our children.

We provide a broad and balanced curriculum of physical activities, ranging from team sports, athletics and invasion games to dance and gymnastics. Each class is allocated two hall periods each week to ensure that PE is taught twice-per-week, outdoors wherever possible. We employ external providers and offer extra-curricular clubs, in addition to classroom-based physical activity, such as Go Noodle, whenever this two hours has not been achieved. To further ensure these two hours have been achieved, children have an afternoon break known as ‘Daily Mile’ from Monday to Thursday in which they are encouraged to run around a large track suitable to their ages. Throughout the year, children are invited to represent their school and attend a variety of sporting events within the local area. We endeavour to provide every child with the same opportunities to attend such events and ensure a large number of these events are SEN/D friendly festivals. Teamwork and fair play are at the heart of these events and we are encouraged to share our achievements in school assemblies, creating a loving and supportive atmosphere for all children involved.

Through delivering high-quality PE lessons that are engaging, fun and suitably challenging for all, we help to motivate children and develop the mind set of embracing physical activity, appreciating that there is a sport or activity for every child to enjoy. Children’s skills are regularly assessed, in line with the National Curriculum for Physical Education. Our Get Set 4 PE scheme provides a clear success criteria in each lesson, enabling staff to identify and assess skills that have been developed. In every PE lesson, children are taught about self-discipline and that they must take ownership and responsibility of their own health and fitness to be successful in PE.

PE Curriculum Overview