Physical Education

Hi, our names are Mrs Hitchmough and Miss Abraham and we are the PE leads at Bidston Village CE Primary School.

We love being the PE leads because we get to inspire our pupils to be active, confident, and healthy. It’s rewarding to see their skills and teamwork grow, and to create fun, inclusive opportunities for everyone to enjoy sport and physical activity, both in lessons and through extra-curricular events.

When pupils leave Bidston Village CE Primary, we want them to have the knowledge and understanding of how to lead a healthy and active life, enabling them to make positive decisions in relation to healthy eating and exercise. Our pupils will demonstrate resilience and have the confidence and fitness to access a range of activities.

Our curriculum will support the development of a broad and varied range of basic fine and gross motor skills and promote local and national role models within sport. The PE curriculum will focus on more than just physical skills; it will teach pupils about the links between health, fitness, and their wellbeing.

As a school, we value the impact that PE and Sport can have in other areas of the curriculum including, encouraging the use of appropriate language and vocabulary. PE and Sport will also play a role in developing key social skills through a range of competitions, experiences and attempting to remove existing barriers to long term participation in physical fitness.

For our pupils, the curriculum will have an additional focus on creating sustainable opportunities for pupils to engage in sport in the local community and supporting the school’s overall focus on pupil wellbeing.

Bidston Village CE Primary School is committed to meeting the requirements of the Primary National Curriculum. The curriculum planning in PE is carried out in three phases (long-term, medium-term and short-term). The long-term plan maps out the PE activities covered in each term during the key stage. Our medium-term plans, which have been created by the subject lead and Edsential, are purposefully designed for the children of Bidston Village Primary School to set out the key objectives for each unit of work for the term. These plans guide what we teach and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of work across each term. Class teachers are then able to view and adapt the Edsential planning online to meet the individual needs of pupils in their class.

The PE activities are planned to ensure that they build upon the prior learning of the children. There are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in each area of the PE curriculum. There is planned progression built into the scheme of work; the children are increasingly challenged as they progress through the school.

The way the curriculum is structured means there are regular opportunities for the children to revisit aspects of their learning in order to consolidate their knowledge and understanding. We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in PE lessons across our school. Our aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in fundamental core skills. Teachers draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other children and we encourage the children to evaluate their own work as well as the work of other children. Within lessons, we give the children the opportunity both to collaborate and to compete with each other, using and accessing a range of different PE resources.

Teachers have access to continued professional development through PE specialist teachers throughout the year.  This allows staff to enter into a professional dialogue where they are able to identify areas of the PE curriculum where they would like support. Staff are then given specialist guidance and advice through working collaboratively with a specialist teacher in the PE lesson.   

There are a wide range of extra-curricular sports opportunities across Early Years, Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 to provide children with a broad and balanced range of opportunities. These are reviewed half-termly based on the number of participants within the clubs. We hold ‘Fitness and Nutrition’ days throughout the year to promote and encourage health and nutrition across the school.

Final end of year assessments are made using criteria that have been developed in line with the National Curriculum to identify the level at which the child is working. Teachers report the age related expectation levels to parents in their end of Year final report.

Swimming and water safety

Bidston Village CE Primary School is located on the Wirral Peninsular; swimming and water safety is an aspect of the curriculum we consider to be vital in ensuring that the children are adequately prepared to stay safe in their local area.

All children in Years 5 and 6 will take part in school swimming lessons. The National Curriculum states that all children should be able to swim 25m by the end of KS2. To achieve this, we use some of the PE funding to purchase additional swimming lessons.

At Bidston Village Primary School, through our rich and broad PE curriculum we are enabling children to gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to apply to their PE learning and development. We aim to produce active pupil, who value the importance of healthy minds, healthy bodies and physical fitness.

Planned learning will progressively build on prior knowledge and understanding and support children in producing outcomes of the highest quality. We will ensure that the curriculum is monitored and reviewed regularly.

Senior leaders and subject leaders will review individual subjects. The learning and outcomes will be monitored and feedback will be given around what is going well and where there are areas for growth and development.

The school works closely with external partners and agencies to improve the physical activity on offer.

 Bidston Village offers a wide variety of optional extra-curricular activities to help students discover new skills and interests.

“PE is fun and I love doing more exercise. It also helps us with our agility and strength. I like to see how much power I can use from my arms. I get faster and I like the stretches.” - Reece Year 3

“I like agility. I like being active in the lessons and I get to run a lot. I love doing sports.” - Robbie Year 6