At St Helena’s, our Physical Education (PE) curriculum is designed to inspire and unlock the potential in all children. We believe in providing a respectful environment where every pupil can flourish through challenge, support, and a broad, balanced curriculum rooted in our shared values and high expectations for excellence.

Our PE curriculum is shaped by our values. It is an integral part of our broader curriculum, aimed at fostering a love for sports and instilling the values associated with them. We create a positive and inspiring learning environment where students can master fundamental skills, promote creativity, and develop friendships through collaborate with their peers. Our goal is to build a strong knowledge base through purposeful activity and active coaching, while also focusing on the development of emotional resilience and critical thinking skills in every lesson. We believe in instilling endurance in our students and ensuring that all learners, regardless of gender or ability, have equal opportunities to participate and feel empowered.

It is our vision to promote physical activity not only within our school but also throughout our community, encouraging healthy and active lifestyles from a young age. Through our PE curriculum, we aim to achieve excellence for all students, empowering them to lead healthy, active lives.

Our PE curriculum is built around the Complete PE scheme of work and enhanced and personalised to meet the needs of all learners at St Helena’s. Enhancements and personalisation includes the use of adaptive teaching and links to sporting opportunities outside of school, which are planned and timely to support and strengthen learning. PE in EYFS is underpinned by the Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development objectives as set out in our personalised EYFS Curriculum. Our EYFS Curriculum relates to the objectives as set out in the Early Learning Goals, with clear progression from our littlest of learners (aged 3) to our end of Reception children.

• Long term planning is informed by the Complete PE scheme of work and is structured around are competition calendar of events and runs intrinsically with our after-school sport provision.
• Plans build upon existing skills and develop and refine techniques in a range of games.
• All lessons build knowledge and depth of understanding through minimal teacher talk; skill practice and challenge – the emphasis is on learning by ‘doing’ and for children to set their own ‘personal challenges’ reflecting our child-centred approach. Lessons follow a clear ‘skills ladder’ indicating the next small step in the development and application of a skill.
• A step-by-step approach is used so children can firstly understand the task, then apply and execute in a game.
• It is recognised that for most children to increase their level of skill they will need to repeat the skill and practise many times and embed it through making links between different skills and techniques. Vocabulary plays an important part in explanations and demonstrations of skills.
• Practice is pitched with suitable scaffolds based on assessment for learning, ensuring individuals are stretched and challenged to appropriate levels.
• Teachers & peers provide instant feedback, identify misconceptions and move learners on where necessary.
• Enrichment opportunities are abundant for the children of St Helena’s, with a variety of sporting clubs after school as well as a busy sporting competition calendar throughout the year. All children have the opportunity across school to attend a range of competitions and development days. Some specifically tailored opportunities and competitions are created to attract less active children to participate in physical activity with their positive ‘yes, you can!’ attitude.
• Our school values and those of sportsmanship also play a fundamental role in all areas of our school sporting life.
• Our PE curriculum is aligned with the School Games offer and continues to raise the profile of PE across the whole school.
• Swimming lessons happen throughout the year.
• The ‘Safe Travel to School’ initiative exposes children to level 1 and 2 Bikeability awards.

As a Year 6 sports person transitioning to secondary school, we aspire that all learners will have the knowledge and lifelong skills they need to choose to be physically active and to have a nutritious diet outside of school. Having participated in a variety of different sports and fundamental skill developments, all children will possess a variety of skills which they use in different ways and link them to making actions and sequences of movement and an ability to evaluate, improve and celebrate their own successes. Children will demonstrate a resilience during sporting activities and demonstrate great sportsmanship towards all competitors.