Intent

Derry Hill Primary School believes that Physical Education (PE), experienced in a safe and supportive environment, is essential to developing the whole child, and showing children how to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

We intend to deliver high-quality teaching and learning opportunities that inspire all children to succeed in physical education and in developing life skills from EYFS, through to year 6 and beyond. We want to teach children valuable life skills that keep them safe, such as being able to swim.  We also want to teach children how to cooperate, to lead, to listen and to apply their learning across a wide range of areas, both in and out of the classroom. Our curriculum aims to improve the well-being and fitness of all children at Derry Hill, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes.

Implementation

PE at Derry Hill Primary School 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 learning. These will always be taught alongside a skill to develop and apply, in addition to a key personal focus – such as teamwork. The long term plan, available through the online portal ‘Jasmine’, 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. The dance objectives for the school are met by Real Dance, available on the Jasmine portal, and the teachers link these into their topics each term – ensuring P.E is fluent with Derry Hill’s creative curriculum.

Pupils participate in two high quality PE lessons each week, covering two sporting disciplines every half term. On a half term rotation, each class will receive one P.E lesson taught by In2Sport coaching and the other lesson will be taught by the class teacher. 

Our progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary can be located on this page. 

In addition to this, children are encouraged to participate in the varied range of extracurricular activities that are available most days after school. These will change dependent on the season; most of these clubs will run up and conclude with an intra or interschool tournament.

Children are invited to attend competitive sporting events within the local area throughout the year. These are mostly organised by the Chippenham Sports Partnership which has an all-inclusive approach, endeavouring 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 children from across Key Stage 2 are invited to become School Sports Organising Committee members for the school. These are led by 2 Sports Ambassadors for the school, which are usually two year 6 children. They develop into sporting role models for the younger children, assisting with lunchtime clubs, our annual Sports day and any other Sporting activities and promotions around the school.

Every year we have a week of activities, called sports week, which culminates in a sports day, during which we invite the parents in to watch their children compete in a variety of activities. These are supported by children from secondary schools around the area. Children participate in workshops during sports week, where they get to try out a variety of lower-profile sports which they may not have had access to before, such as skateboarding, martial arts and basketball. Again, providing children with the opportunity to gain fitness and skills and to try something new. Most of these clubs are local, in order to promote sport and activity clubs from the surrounding area.

To further create links with local secondary schools, year 6 compete in the ‘Chippenham School Games’ every year. During which they compete for the secondary school that they will attend in year 7, in a variety of activities put on by the Chippenham sports partnership.

Each year, year 4 are provided with the opportunity to have swimming lessons as a class where they will aim to be confident in swimming 25m and are assessed by a qualified swimming instructor. 

Children at Derry Hill take part in the daily mile, in order to build a positive and consistent relationship with exercise. They do this alongside 10-minute workouts which take place inside the classrooms, at the teacher’s discretion, to further promote exercise and to maintain children’s focus and energy levels inside and out of the classroom.

Impact

We help motivate children to participate in a variety of sports through quality teaching that is engaging and fun. We engage with our children regularly, through our ‘Sports Organising Committee’, to ensure children are enjoying school, and to take suggestions about how we can improve. Through these conversations we constantly learn to implement the new approaches and improve anything they find disengaging or inaccessible.  From our lessons, our children learn to take responsibility for their own health and fitness, many of whom also enjoy the success of competitive inter and intra-school sports. We assess the data termly to ensure the levels of attainment in our lessons are stable and consistent and to assess what areas we can improve across the school. We equip our children with the necessary skills and a love for activity and exercise.  Our aim is that they continue this attitude into the rest of their education and adult life.