At St Ambrose we are committed to providing all children with high quality learning opportunities to engage in Physical Education.

Children will:

• be inspired to succeed in Physical Education and develop skills for life.
• develop fundamental and crucial personal skills such as how to cooperate and collaborate with others as part of an effective team, understanding fairness and equity of play to embed life-long values.
• have improved wellbeing and fitness, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes.

PE at St Ambrose provides challenging and enjoyable learning through a range of sporting activities including; invasion games, net & wall games, strike and field games, gymnastics, dance, swimming and outdoor & adventure.

The long term plan sets out the PE units which are to be taught throughout the year and ensures that the requirements of the National Curriculum are fully met.

Pupils participate in two high quality PE lessons each week, covering two sporting disciplines every half term. In addition, children are encouraged to participate in the varied range of extra-curricular activities. Lunch time sports clubs are available each day and children can attend after school sport clubs two evenings per week.

Children are invited to attend competitive sporting events within the local area. This is an inclusive approach which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also mental well-being. These events also develop teamwork and leadership skills and are very much enjoyed by the children.

Each year a small group of Key Stage 2 children are invited to become Sports Leaders for the school. They develop into sporting role models for the younger children, assisting with lunch-time clubs, our annual Sports day and any other Sporting activities.

Children in Key Stage 2 swim once a week for 10 weeks during the academic year.  We provide top-up swimming lessons for any children that are still unable to swim.

We help motivate children to participate in a variety of sports through quality teaching that is engaging and fun. From our lessons, our children learn to take responsibility for their own health and fitness, many of whom also enjoy the success of competitive sports. We equip our children with the necessary skills and a love for sport. They will hopefully grow up to live happy and healthy lives utilising the skills and knowledge acquired through PE.

Key Stage 1

Pupils should develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others. They should be able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

Pupils should be taught to:

• master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
• participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
• perform dances using simple movement patterns.

There is less focus on explicit sports, and more focus on the range of skills that can be transferable between sports.  Lessons will be focused on simple skills, techniques and tactics and then these will be applied into small, conditioned game situations.

The class teacher will identify their classes individualised needs at regular intervals throughout the year and plan for these accordingly (for example listening skills, teamwork, resilience etc.).  Where appropriate they will work closely in conjunction with the PE Specialist in order to cater for children’s developmental needs.  A log of these individualised needs will be kept throughout each classes journey through the school.

Key Stage 2

Pupils should continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement.  They should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. They should develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.

Pupils should be taught to:

• use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
• play competitive games, modified where appropriate, and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
• develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance
• perform dances using a range of movement patterns
• take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
• compare their performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best.

Competitive games will be taught through conditioned rules – the opportunity for ‘normal’ games will be provided during lunchtime clubs, after-school clubs and external events.  There will be an increased focus on learning skills that can be transferred between different games of the same type (e.g. invasion, striking and fielding, net and wall etc.).

The class teacher will identify their classes individualised needs at regular intervals throughout the year and plan for these accordingly (for example listening skills, teamwork, resilience etc.).  Where appropriate they will work closely in conjunction with the PE Specialist in order to cater for children’s developmental needs.  A log of these individualised needs will be kept throughout each classes journey through the school.

Swimming and Water Safety

All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.

In particular, pupils should be taught to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

Swimming lessons will be provided to Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.  Each year group will have one full term of swimming lessons.  There will be an initial assessment to inform groups and session plans; these will be differentiated according to year group and individual needs.  The term will end with a final assessment to ascertain attainment levels of each child.  Any child who is deemed unable to meet the national curriculum aims will be provided with the opportunity to have ‘top-up’ sessions in the summer term.  Progress will be monitored throughout Key Stage 2 in order to allow every child to reach their full potential.

We were extremely proud of our Year 6 and Year 4 Football teams, who used their God-given talents on the football pitch!  They showed resilience, teamwork, faith and good sportsmanship to all other teams. It has been our most successful year taking part in the tournament, with U9s winning and U11s coming second. Well done all!

To help raise money for a Tonie for their class, Year 6 opted to pay to come to school wearing their own clothes and to play a game of footie!

Our Y6 pupils, organised a special day on Tuesday 17th January in memory of our wonderful coach, Mr Fisher. For a small donation, everyone came to school in their P.E. kit or Football kit and took part in some football games/activities in their classes during the day.

All donations went towards a community fund that has been set up in Mr Fisher's memory, to help young adults from all backgrounds gain a coaching or referee qualification.

Today, children were lucky enough to either watch England V Iran, or take part in a Dodgeball competition in the hall with Mrs Shevas. What a fantastic afternoon it was!