Increasing physical activity and improving physical education at St Joseph’s Primary
Key Points
- Increase the amount of physical activity of your pupils
- Improve the quality of teaching of physical education
- Make best use of your PE and Sport Premium Funding
Purpose
What were your reasons for doing this development work?
Our school wanted to:-
- Improve fitness levels of pupils
- Support pupils to increase their motivation towards fitness
- Promote physical wellbeing
- Ensure effective use of our PE Premium funding by upskilling staff members to deliver high quality PE
- Develop teacher subject knowledge with particular focus on dance and gymnastics
- Ensure consistent progression in PE for each year group through the use of curriculum maps
- Reduce behaviour incidents at breaktimes
- Work towards all PE lesson being outstanding PE lessons
Who were the identified target learners?
- All pupils in our school
What were your success criteria?
- More pupils being physically active
- More outstanding PE lessons
- Increased participation and enjoyment in PE lessons and extra curricular clubs
- Improved behaviour at break times
What did you do? (What success criteria did you use?)
- Elms Sport (external coaches) taught Year 1 and Year 6 for ½ term alongside class teachers for gymnastics. Class teachers fed back on their learning and skill progression to the rest of the class teachers
- Main aim was to develop subject knowledge and confidence and ensure skill progression of pupils
- Progression maps were made available to all class teachers including athletics, games, dance and gymnastics
- Ensured that the Medium Term plan for PE was written in the same format and had equal priority as other curriculum subjects
- As part of PE Subject Lead’s Professional Development, Camden PE consultant undertook teacher observation of PE lead and knowledge was disseminated throughout the school
- Implemented 5-a-day physical activity programme which is used in transition between lessons
- Involved in Race to Health to increase amount of physical activity of pupils (a Camden Health Improvement Initiative)
- Pupils participate in “Wake up Shake Up” physical activity initiative when they line up from morning, lunch and afternoon break times.
- Linked with the YMCA to offer an off-site extra-curricular sports club with a variety of sports on offer for groups of children. Fifteen pupils are accompanied to the club by teaching assistants
- Playground was zoned and school now have a teacher trained in positive playgrounds
- Two playground buddies per class were identified to make sure pupils feel happy and safe and equipment is being used correctly
What specific teaching resources did you use?
- Val Sabin Gymnastics and Dance Resource to improve the quality of dance and gymnastics in both key stages
- New equipment bought to support physical development in EYFS and for use at break times
Outcomes and Impact
What has been the impact on pupil learning and teaching?
- Improved teacher subject knowledge in Dance and Gymnastics
- PE planning now shows a clear progression of skills across the year groups in gymnastics and dance and teachers feel more confident
- Improved attitudes towards sport for pupils attending YMCA club as evidenced by attendance figures and positive feedback from parents and pupils
- Pupils are more active at lunchtimes and there has been reduction in the number of accidents and behaviour incidents at playtimes as evidenced by log book
- Increased physical activity, motivation and enjoyment of pupils through the purchasing of new equipment. This has also led to improved teaching as teachers are not limited by resources
- Early indicators show that new sports/activity equipment is supporting the fine and gross motor skills of Nursery and Reception children. The children are also benefitting from the lunchtime zoned activities
- Improved behaviour in playground as evidenced by log books
Evidence of impact on pupil learning and teaching/leadership
- Skills audit of teachers
- Feedback from teachers and pupils
- More lessons assessed as Outstanding
- Fitness testing results of pupils
- Monitoring of pupil participation in extra-curricular sports clubs
- Feedback from pupils, parents and teachers