PE

Primary PE and Sports Premium Funding - an explanation

 An explanation:-

The government are committed to improving physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools through funding which has been allocated to primary schools.

The funding is ring-fenced and so can only be spent on provision of PE and sport in schools.

How schools should use the Primary PE and Sport premium funding:

Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer. This means that they should use the premium to:

- develop or add to the PE and sport activities that their school already offers

- make improvements that will benefit all pupils joining the school in future years.

Physical Education and Healthy Eating

1. Rationale/Introduction

1.1 Lickhill Primary School believes that Physical Education, experienced in a safe and supportive environment, is a unique and vital contributor to a pupil’s physical development and well-being. Here at Lickhill we are committed to encouraging and developing positive attitudes towards leading a healthy and active lifestyle. Promoting and fostering an enjoyment and appreciation of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle is fundamental to our curriculum and we recognise the importance of offering children the opportunity to make informed choices about health based decisions.

1.2 As a school we know that regular, sustained and high quality physical activity opportunities, alongside a balanced diet is fundamental to the quality of a child’s life; not just in the development of fundamental movement skills and providing essential nutrition but in communicating and sharing positive values, attitudes and experiences with each other.

We believe that as adults (staff, parents and carers), we should be good role models, modelling healthy lifestyle choices and that we should support the children in understanding how regular exercise and balanced nutrition contributes to a person’s health, happiness and general well-being.

1.3 The purpose of this policy is to enable the school to develop and maintain a shared philosophy on all aspects of health.  Its key aim is to develop healthy habits within the school that benefit children, staff, parents and the whole school community. At Lickhill we also recognise the important connection between a healthy, balanced diet and physical activity and a child’s ability to learn effectively and achieve high standards in school.

2.  Aims and Objectives   

2.1 At Lickhill, in teaching Physical Education we aim to:

• Support the development of flexibility, strength, coordination, technique, control and balance through activities such as yoga, dance and gymnastics
• Teach gross motor skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching (in isolation and in combination)
• Provide the children with opportunities to play competitive games such as hockey, rounders, tag rugby, netball and football, and to develop the skills associated with these sports
• Set outdoor and adventurous activity challenges
• Ensure that all children leave school able to swim 25 metres, using a range of strokes effectively, and are all able to perform safe self-rescue

2.2 In addition, we aim to:

• Give children the opportunity to challenge themselves within a safe and structured environment
• Foster an appreciation of safe practice
• Organise equipment and apparatus and begin to design and apply simple rules
• Develop a sense of fair play, respect, resilience, perseverance and sportsmanship, through team and group activities
• Teach team building and competitive skills
• Promote a healthy diet and regular exercise as an essential part of everyday life
• Promote positive attitudes towards health, hygiene and fitness, (including dental health)
• Provide the children with access to sports outside their everyday PE experience
• Develop our children's stamina and general fitness levels
• Develop a lifelong enjoyment of exercise and an understanding of its benefits

3. Strategies/Implementation  

3.1 Physical Education Lessons:

3.2 PE is delivered through a minimum of two hourly lessons per week. All children are expected to wear appropriate Lickhill PE kit, and to participate to their full capacity. Children who do not have kit available in school are provided with suitable spare clothing belonging to the school. Our PE kit comprises of navy blue/black shorts and white t-shirt for indoor sessions (bare feet are required for these lessons), and additional navy blue/black tracksuit bottoms and trainers for outdoor activities. We recommend that pupils also bring in a navy blue jacket/fleece to wear in colder weather. Jewellery and watches should not be worn for the health and safety of all of our pupils. The children are taught both indoors and outdoors throughout the changing seasons. Cold weather does not limit our curriculum; we encourage the children to get outside as often as they can.

3.3 Children participate in a range of activities across the year, receiving a broad and balanced curriculum which teaches balance, control, coordination and stamina. These fundamental motor skills are built up on and developed year upon year.  Different skills and sports are taught each term and each year group, and lessons are planned using a range of high quality resources. All PE lessons are designed to deliver vigorous activity and to improve fitness. Children are also encouraged to improve their general fitness through additional, short sessions during the week which are not timetabled but happen incidentally. These can be in the form of 'Go Noodle’, YouTube songs such as those performed by Jack Hartmann for counting and learning times tables, Active Maths activities, 'yoga' sessions, Smart Moves activities or exercises that are tailored to increase stamina and strength. Activities in Forest School are designed to improve stamina, control and promote the health benefits of exercise.

3.4 Swimming:

Swimming is taught in year 2 and 3 and then Swimming interventions for Year 6 children who have not completed their 25m. This ensures that all children are given plenty of opportunity to develop their swimming and water safety skills. By the time children leave primary education, it is expected that they are able to swim unaided for a distance of 25m. Children are expected to attend swimming sessions with an appropriate swimming costume or trunks. Goggles and swim caps may be worn with written consent from parents. 

3.5 Outdoor and Adventurous Activities:

In Year 5 and 6, pupils have the opportunity to attend an Educational Outdoor Pursuits experience. Running on a two-year cycle, we either take pupils on a three-day Residential stay at the Malvern Outdoor Elements Centre, based in the Malvern Hills or to a local outdoor activity centre for a one-day activity based day. The main aim for these outdoor educational visits, is to enhance pupils’ skills and abilities using the great outdoors as their stimulus. These experiences specifically designed to suit the needs of specific groups and intakes. The experiences offer a range of physically and mentally challenging activities such as: high ropes and zip wires, abseiling, climbing and orienteering, mountain walking and grass sledging, kayaking, bush and water crafts, and lots more, all with a focus on team working, leadership, building independence, self-confidence and facilitating exploration.

3.6 Lunchtimes:

We aim to promote fitness and sport during the Lunchtime break. As such, playground play equipment and resources are available for the children to use and our young sport leaders, ‘Jumping Jaxx leaders’ set up and deliver a range of games on the school playground. At lunch times, we also encourage pupils of all year groups to join in with organised games such as football, skipping, tennis and running as part of our quest to raise the awareness of lifelong participation in regular physical activity. We have found that this also has made a positive contribution to pupils’ self-confidence, motivation and overall focus during afternoon lessons.

3.7 Extra-Curricular activities:

We aim to provide the children with the opportunity to experience a broad range of sports (some of which that may be beyond their usual experience). As such, our school staff and external coaches offer a range of clubs over the school year designed to promote general fitness, including dance, gymnastics, yoga, netball, football and ball skills.  In addition, we hold termly intra-school team events in a range of sports and also attend a vast array of inter-school against our family cluster of schools and other schools in the Wyre Forest Sports Partnership.

3.8 Facilities, equipment and resources:

Our working environments include:

• Astro Turf area

• Field
• Multi-purpose hall
• Outdoor playground
• Forest School area
• Outdoor and offsite areas
• Wyre Forest  Swimming Pool

3.9 Staff endeavour to make full use of available facilities, both indoor and outdoor, to provide appropriate experiences for pupils within the activity being taught. Reception go to Forest School once a week whilst  Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 have half-termly block sessions using the Forest School facility. We transport pupils to offsite locations by either walking, use of coach, or minibus.

4.0 Sports Funding:

We use the sport funding monies each to improve the quality of our PE provision within school. This is spent in a variety of ways including staff training, extra-curricular activities, resources and equipment, transport to events, festivals and sporting activities. For further information, please see our PE and Sports funding action plan.

4.1 Healthy Eating:

As an addition to our PE lessons, we also encourage and promote healthy eating in our school. The school provides a range of healthy snacks for break time for all Key Stage one pupils. These snacks include both fruit and vegetables.

4.2 To ensure consistency across the school, Key Stage two pupils are also encouraged to bring in a healthy snack of their choice. Healthy snack options could include; fresh fruit or vegetables, dried fruit or vegetables, cereal bars (preferably not high in sugar content), bread sticks, crackers, rice cakes, cheese or snack yoghurts. Chocolate, sweets, biscuits, crisps, and cakes are not allowed as everyday snacks in school.  Chewing gum and fizzy drinks are not permitted on the school premises or while the children are representing the school.

4.3 At dinner time, all pupils in Key Stage one are offered a broad and balanced free school meal. As a school, we endorse fresh and local food.

4.4 Healthy Eating in the curriculum:

At Lickhill, we regard healthy eating and healthy lifestyle education as a whole-school issue, and we believe that opportunities to teach about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle occur throughout the curriculum. Assemblies are delivered to offer an opportunity to explore health and food related issues.

4.5 Healthy eating education forms an important part of our school’s curriculum. The importance of balanced nutrition and healthy food choices is explicitly taught through the Science, Design and Technology and PSHE (Personal, Social, Health Education) curriculum.

4.6 All children have the opportunity to learn about safe food preparation and to learn about where food has come from. Children learn about the requirements for plant growth, the food chain, healthy lifestyles (exercise, sleep and the components of a healthy diet) and its effect on the human body through the Science curriculum.

4.7 Cross Curricular links:

Children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum requires the recognition of P.E. as a valuable contribution to cross curricular work. All staff at Lickhill consider the links P.E. has with other subjects and how it can enhance these subjects and vice-versa. From time to time, there are specific focus days e.g. cultural days, sports day and intra-school competitions.

4.8 Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)  

In the Early Years Foundation Stage at Lickhill, we aim to provide the children with a wide range of physical activities and experiences to motivate them to be active. We provide children with equipment and resources that are sufficient, challenging, interesting and plan activities that offer plenty of opportunities for physical activity. The Physical Development activities on offer to children in the EYFS at Lickhill include:

• Joining in with action songs and rhymes
• Joining in with circle games
• Riding bikes, scooters and wheeled vehicles
• Preschool and Reception  have an allocated time to use the playground each week for various activities
• Preschool and Reception have hall time each week where the children take part in dance, gym, games and apparatus sessions
• Free flow -ball games/balance bikes, negotiating space and aiming games.
• Preschool class have use of the Active Playground equipment
• Preschool, Reception class and year 1 also have use of the school’s Forest School area on a weekly basis.

4.9 Equal opportunities and SEND

All pupils, including those with SEN and disabilities, have an equal opportunity to become independently active. The pupils’ needs and interests will be protected regardless of gender, culture, ability, disability or aptitude. All children will be given the opportunity to develop their capability in the attainment targets for P.E. Participation, quality and excellence should be the target for all children. Physical Education experiences will reflect the school policy on promoting equal opportunities for all pupils in terms of organisation, opportunities and access to resources.

It is a strong feature of Lickhill that all children are encouraged to engage as fully as possible with PE activities. A range of different groupings/pupils are selected to represent the school in competitions and local festivals. Talented pupils are encouraged to partake in trials at club and county level.

This policy is the subject of constant scrutiny and review to reflect the changing needs and development of our children and staff.

How can we do this?

Schools can allocate the funding to :

- hire qualified sports coaches to work with teachers

- provide existing staff with training or resources to help them teach PE and sport more effectively

- introduce new sports or activities and encourage more pupils to take up sport

- support and involve the least active children by running or extending school sports activities such as after school clubs

- run sport competitions

- increase pupils’ participation in the sports events with other schools

- run sports activities with other schools

Schools should not use their funding to:

- employ coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements - these should come out of your core staffing budgets

- teach the minimum requirements of the national curriculum - including those specified for swimming (or, in the case of academies and free schools, to teach your existing PE curriculum)

Who is accountable?

Since September 2013, Ofsted inspections report on PE and sport provision within schools along with how the additional funding is spent. The government also hold schools accountable by requiring them to publish, on their websites, details of how they spend (or will spend) their PE and sport grant. This must also include detail about the impact this funding has on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment.