PE

Honesty, Respect, Teamwork, Self-Belief, Determination and Passion. These are the national School Games Values and we have embraced these wholeheartedly; now embedded into our School Behaviour Policy.

Physical activities within the curriculum ensure that the fundamentals of agility, balance and co-ordination are at the heart of learning and that our children are active for sustained periods of time. We offer a wide range of sports that include; netball, hockey, basketball, cross country, athletics, swimming, sports hall athletics, gymnastics, cricket, tennis, tri golf and dance.

We encourage all of our pupils to succeed and excel in physically demanding activities, and in competitive sport, emphasising personal development to accommodate varying levels of fitness. This ensures that all our pupils become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness.

There are targets at the end of each Key Stage that pupils are expected to reach along with a knowledge and understanding of skills and processes. This includes a general understanding of physical health and fitness.

Effective delivery of high-quality PE, physical activity and school sport can support wider school aims including raised attainment, development of life skills and increased emotional wellbeing of young people.

At St Joseph’s, we follow a wonderful scheme called ‘Get Set 4 P.E.’. This scheme allows our teachers to deliver outstanding lessons in a range of sports and physical activities. Each lesson plan has progressive activities that are designed to inspire and engage your pupils, allowing them to explore and develop skills and embed knowledge. The lessons are accompanied by supporting resources including resource cards, skills videos and music. Teaching points appear throughout to help teachers with their subject knowledge and differentiation tasks provide activities with simple changes to appropriately challenge all of your pupils.

Click here for free resources from the scheme. These will allow you to be active at home as a family. They are also great fun!

A number of sport-specific coaches, often from our school/club link clubs, are engaged to support our school development in areas such as cricket, gymnastics, rugby and hockey including:

We offer a wide range of pre-school, lunchtime and after school clubs for various year groups including football, rugby, netball, general athletics, sports hall athletics, cross country, gymnastics and speed stacking.

Clubs are not exclusive to school teams, children are encouraged to attend whatever their level with a focus of personal improvement. School Teams often have additional training in preparation for inter-school competitions.

We are recognised by the School Games as a Platinum Award School which is awarded for offering, amongst other things, a wide range of sports within the curriculum, in our after school clubs, and at competition level. The award acknowledges that we offer inclusive competitive opportunities, suitable for all young people, both within our school and against other schools.

The curriculum is organised in line with the national School Games competition calendar so that maximum practice is available to all pupils. This ensures that children who are unable to attend clubs do not miss out on the opportunity to represent the school.

At St. Joseph’s we believe all children should belong to a club in the community if at all possible. Whilst keeping them fit and healthy, being able to offer them further development in an area they enjoy, it also widens their social circle. We have many links to outside of school clubs in the community (see club links on web site). We often organise for coaches to attend the school to deliver taster sessions or half-termly sessions allowing the children to experience a new sport and returning home with club information should they wish to pursue this outside of school.

Trinity School and St. Joseph’s jointly organise an annual Rugby and Panathlon competition held at Trinity and supported by their Young Leaders. We have access to their swimming pool at less busy times throughout the year and Trinity run sports training opportunities for our teachers and TAs half termly at their school in a range of sports.

Bishop Thomas Grant (BTG) host an annual netball and football competition for Yr 5 children which we attend annually. Their young leaders also attend our school and offer further sporting opportunities for our children and ex-pupils often support our annual School Games Day.

The John Fisher School (JFS) and St. Joseph’s jointly organise the annual Catholic Schools’ cross country competition hosted by the JFS and supported by their Sixth Form boys.

The Daily Mile is accessible to the whole family and we encourage, those that are able, to participate in the Park Run (which can start with the NHS Couch to 5K programme). Physical Education, physical activity and school sport is not just about physical development, it is about the creative, cognitive, social and personal development of young people that will support them in leading healthy, active lives. Outside of school clubs are encouraged for this very reason and also to identify early that there is a place for sport in children’s/adults lives outside of school.

Mr S Abrahams  PE Co-ordinator (Whole School)

Supported by Mrs M Mangan Specialist PE Teacher