Our Physical Education coordinator is Mr Adlington.
At Towngate Primary Academy, we teach weekly Physical Education lessons across school following an enhanced model of the programme of study outlined in the national curriculum and Early Years Framework. Our provision is supplemented by PE PRO – an app-based programme which has been developed, through research, by Professors and Doctors at Leeds Beckett University and in conjunction with elite athletes and the Association for Physical Education.
Through PE PRO, our PE curriculum is underpinned by the Youth Development Model to ensure that the activities which are planned are developmentally appropriate – taking into account the maturational status and training needs of our children.
Specialist coaches in both sports and dance enhance the delivery of lessons, which provides CPD for staff where appropriate. Lessons are planned – in the first instance – following the national curriculum objectives. This is then broken down into a progression grid created by the curriculum leader, which outlines the knowledge, skills and vocabulary from EY to Year 6. This also outlines the substantive and disciplinary knowledge for each year group. The curriculum offer at Towngate is tailored by the subject leader to meet the needs of the pupils and is reviewed termly to ensure it stays relevant and current.
Our curriculum is designed to build on prior knowledge to support children to be successful in their primary end of year goals. The teaching and learning is personalised through the teachers medium term planning, which uses a range of schemes and teachers’ own professional judgement. Subsequently, it is our aim that when children leave our school they will leave with an understanding of how to lead an active and healthy lifestyle both physically and mentally.
PE lessons follow a clear, comprehensive and progressive scheme in line with the national curriculum. Teaching and learning shows progression across the four strands of PE: games, dance, athletics and gymnastics. Children have access to key vocabulary on displays to allow them to know more and remember more.
Where appropriate, cross-curricular links are made to encourage children to demonstrate their values based learning, mathematical understanding and speaking and listening skills. Inter and intra sporting events take place across the year to provide children with opportunities to participate in competitive events.
Teachers deliver lessons which are underpinned by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. This ensures that new information is provided in small, manageable chunks and that previous knowledge is revisited regularly through the use of flashcards. Physical demonstrations are provided to children during lessons and corrective feedback ensures that children are able to fine tune their techniques when learning sport specific skills. Repetition and practise of skills ensure these are embedded in isolation before being combined in game situations.
Children at Towngate Primary Academy understand the importance of PE and how to lead a healthy lifestyle. This is evident through pupil voice and monitoring which takes place every half term. Children know more, remember more and are confident in the their sporting skills and vocabulary.
PE displays across school demonstrate the physical competence of our learners and showcase the learning journey for each unit. In addition, an increase in extra-curricular club uptake indicates that children attribute value to maintaining physically active lifestyles.
Teachers complete summative assessments, based on the competencies of children, at three points within the year and progress is measured for each child using the PE PRO app. PE PRO also allows teachers to breakdown attainment and progress for the different groups of learners to ensure that key groups can provide the focus for planning for the next term.
Competitions and School Games
One of our aims this year is to increase our participation within competitive sporting activities out of school. A school football team offers children the chance to engage in inter-school competition; developing our learners in to competent sports people.
Please visit our twitter feed to see what we are learning across the school in PE:
#physedTPA
