Stanton Community Primary School and Nursery

Stanton Community Primary School and Nursery, Upthorpe Road, Stanton , Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2AW

admin@stanton.suffolk.sch.uk

01359 250225

Physical Education

Physical Education Statement of Intent

At Stanton Community Primary School, it is our intention to build a curriculum that enables children to develop knowledge, skills and vocabulary in a broad range of sporting activities, as well as developing values and transferrable life skills. Here at Stanton we believe in providing high quality teaching of PE that goes beyond learning how to play a sport. Our planning focuses on 3 strands: health, fitness and sport to teach children the importance of staying fit and healthy both in PE lessons and as part of our active learning approach across all areas of the curriculum. We also focus on the values set by the school games - self-belief, respect, honesty, determination, teamwork and passion-through a wide range of sports to help promote positive sportsmanship and improve social and emotional development.

PE at Stanton is much more than developing sporting champions. The health strand of our PE curriculum works hand in hand with our science and PSHE curriculum by developing an understanding of how the body works and how to keep our bodies healthy including eating a balanced diet. Emotional development and wellbeing is paramount at Stanton for all children, in particular those from forces families as approximately a quarter of the children at our school have a parent serving at the nearby RAF Honington base. It is also vital to our SEN children and those receiving social and emotional support, which makes up over 30% of children at our school. We work hard to ensure our PE teaching allows children the resilience to persevere with activities they may struggle with to help encourage a positive mind-set as well as allowing another form of expression. This positive mind-set also helps to improve their overall confidence not just in PE but across all areas of life.

Exercise causes your brain to release endorphins, which triggers a positive feeling in the body and helps to reduce stress, anxiety and improve your general mood. At Stanton we also understand the growing concern of childhood obesity and know our vital role in reducing this by encouraging all children to stay active. We understand this importance and thus allow children access to activities throughout the school day to provide opportunities for the children to be active. These include lunchtime and after school clubs in addition to our two hour sessions of PE a week. We also have a large playing field, a playground with games markings and equipment such as balance boards, hoops and skipping ropes to allow children the freedom to choose how to be active during their breaks. We also have an orienteering course set up around the school which can be used independently at lunchtimes as forming part of our active learning approach across all subjects. freedom is much the same in our Early years where PE is delivered through the continuous access of the outdoor environment and equipment. This gives children the time, opportunities and space to practice the skills set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. Physical development is key and we support this through a range of activities such as: write dance, daily, dough disco and bike rides, which develop gross and fine motor skills as well as co-ordination and control. Children at Stanton are taught the importance of staying active and are given many ways to explore this, not just through sport.

At Stanton we aim to create as many opportunities for our children as possible. Every child in year 5 has the opportunity to take swimming lessons to either learn how to swim further than 20m or learn lifesaving skills and every child can be involved in competitive and non-competitive sports. Any child still unable to swim 20m will be able to continue their swimming lessons in year 6. At Stanton we also host a range of events, which are led by experts including ex-athletes. These are often as tasters for less mainstream sports in the hope of engaging all young people. We also take part in a range of local and national competitions and events from gymnastics to orienteering. These opportunities allow our children, regardless of backgrounds, the chance to experience high level PE teaching and competition.

 

Children doing Physical Education

Physical Education in Early Years and Foundation Stage

PE is an integral part of the early years learning. The outdoor space is used to help develop the children's fine and gross motor skills through play while indoor play such as dough disco are also used. The children will have at least one dedicated PE lesson where the children will start to develop key skills such a cooperation, teamwork and respect as well as other key skills needed for sports including coordination and balance.