Swaffield School

Physical Education (P.E.) is a highly valued part of our curriculum.
We believe wholeheartedly in the way it:

• develops children’s physical competence
• develops confidence
• enables the children to apply their increasing capability to a range of activities

Visit our Curriculum page which gives details of Swaffield's 2024/2025 curriculum for each year group.

Intent

Our Intent for PE at Swaffield is that our children become:

Healthy

Through regular physical exercise, our pupils will maintain a healthy lifestyle with a range of physical and mental benefits including:

• improving strength, balance and movement skills
• maintaining a healthy heart, muscles and bones
• maintaining a healthy weight
• boosting mood and a feeling of wellbeing
• sleeping better

Skilful

Our PE curriculum will enable our pupils to develop their knowledge and skills through access to a broad range of sports and physical activities. Our pupils are given the opportunity to participate in competitive and non-competitive sporting experiences both within school and outside. Through sport in school, competitions and enrichment activities, we aim to raise the profile of PE and expose our children to sports they may never have had the opportunity to engage with.

Team Players

We want to teach children how to cooperate and collaborate with others as part of an effective team, understanding and learning values such as tolerance, resilience, fairness and respect.

Implementation

Knowledge and skills in PE are taught through a range of sporting activities including; invasion games, net and wall games, striking and fielding games, gymnastics, dance, athletics and swimming. We use the scheme of work from Complete PE and adapt it to meet the needs of our school. For example, the ‘Growing’ dance unit is done in the same half term as Year 1 learn about plants.

The long term plan sets out the units which are to be taught through the year and ensures that the requirements of the National Curriculum and the EYFS framework are fully met.

It is a spiral curriculum where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon, with activities becoming more complex as the children progress through the school from Early Years to Year 6.

See this example of a learning pathway for tennis:

Pupils participate in two PE lessons each week, covering two different areas of PE every half term. In addition, children are encouraged to participate in the varied range of extra-curricular activities both before and after school. These include running club, multi-sports, ballet, yoga and football clubs. In addition to this, we are supported in our teaching of PE by Chelsea Football Club Foundation and other organisations such as All England Tennis Club.

Children are invited to attend competitive sporting events within the local area. This is an inclusive approach which aims to encourage not only physical development but also mental well-being and teamwork and leadership skills.

Each year the children in Year 6 are given the opportunity to apply to become Sports Ambassadors for the school. They are sporting role models for the younger children, assisting with lunch-time clubs and other sporting activities.

Children in Year 5 swim once a week for the whole of the Autumn Term at Southfields Academy. Year 4 swim every week in Summer 1 and Year 6 swim once a week in Summer 2. In addition to that, Year 6 have attended swimming lessons at Emanuel school as part of their Raising Aspirations programme.

Impact

Our PE curriculum aims not only to develop the fitness and wellbeing of all the children at Swaffield, but also values such as teamwork and resilience. We not only want to equip our children with the necessary skills for whatever sport they do in the future but also for them to develop a love of sport and physical activity. We want them to grow up to live happy and healthy lives using the skills and knowledge they have acquired at school.

School Games Award Silver

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

With many young people competing in local inter-school competitions this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.

As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.

Swaffield School has achieved the Silver School Games Mark award for their commitment, engagement and delivery of competitive school sport. All students, teachers and parents should be extremely proud of their efforts and contribution towards this mark.

Sports Premium Funding

The Government provides funding (Sport Premium) for physical education (PE) and sport to improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport provision at school.

For a detailed breakdown of how we are using our Sport Premium Funding please follow this link.

Daily Mile

Swaffield children enjoy doing the Daily Mile. The classes choose the time of day that suits them best and this daily exercise has a fantastic effect on energy levels, mental agility, as well as fitness.

Find out more about the Daily Mile initiative here.

We were delighted that the team from The Daily Mile came to Swaffield to film "England Does the Daily Mile" - a celebration of their initiative. Take a look at the film here.

You can also see Swaffield featured on the ITV News here (click on the picture):

P.E. Lessons

All classes from Reception to Year 6 have P.E. lessons every week.

These lessons cover a wide range of different activities and take place both indoors and outdoors. You can see which days each class has its P.E. lessons by visiting the Year group’s page of the website using the tab above. School P.E. kit needs to be worn (check the Uniform page for details). Please make sure all P.E. kit is named.

P.E. Activities

We use a variety of activities such as gymnastics, games, swimming, and dance to encourage children to:

Enjoy using their bodies to hone their physical abilities
Develop co-ordination
Express ideas and feelings in response to music and other stimuli
Learn to be mindful of the safety aspects of P.E.
Learn the effects that exercise has on their bodies
Encourage children to develop healthy lifestyles

Swimming

In Key Stage 2 children have swimming lessons at Southfields Academy, a short walk away.
This is currently on hold due to coronavirus.

This is scheduled in and we always write home to let you know when your child’s class is doing swimming but please also look at your child’s Year group page using the tab above).

Swimming is a compulsory part of the National Curriculum. All children should be able to swim 25 metres by the end of Year 6. The ability to swim is an important life skill – it is a great way to exercise and keep fit - and it can be a life saver!

Generally speaking, if children are well enough to come to school, they are well enough to swim. Some children are nervous about swimming and may say they feel “unwell”, but the best way to overcome this nervousness is to learn to swim! Unless we have a letter from a parent or carer, the children will be given swimwear and taken to their lesson. If there is a long term medical condition that prevents your child from swimming, we must have a doctor’s note to confirm this.

Please help us by encouraging your child and making sure they have their own swimwear, goggles and a towel each week.

Activities at Lunchtime

Lunchtime is another opportunity for the children to enjoy physical activity.

Our playgrounds are divided by age-group and are also zoned so that we can offer a wide range of different activities. These include throwing & catching games, football, hula hoops, skipping, climbing frame and lots more. This is all looked after by our Lunchtime Supervisors. Please look at our Play Activities on the Lunchtime page to find out about our very different approach to playtimes.

School Teams & Groups

Many of our pupils get the opportunity to represent the school in competitions and activities against and with other schools.

As previously mentioned, this can be in sports afternoons with other schools and it can also be by being part of one of our school teams. We post details of all forthcoming fixtures on Diary listing and give results of matches in our newsletter.

Sports Day

At the end of the summer term each year we hold our sports days.

For Reception, KS1 and KS2 (Years 1 to 6 inclusive) this is held at Southfields Academy where children take part in a range of different sporting activities to earn points for their team. There are four teams (Blue, Green, Red and Yellow) and points are given for first, second and third place as well as good sportsmanship.

Our Nursery children take part in a range of sports in the playground at school, cheered on by their parents & carers.

Useful Information:

Visit our UNIFORM page for information about PE Kit.
See the Extra-curricular page for information about all clubs and activities.
See Play Activities on the Lunch page for information on our very different approach to playtimes.

Clubs and Activities

We offer lots of different clubs for children to enjoy after school including a variety that are P.E.-related. Many are free of charge and others are fee-paying.

Please look out for letters home about available club places and visit the Extra-curricular page for full information on what’s currently running and timing.

Here’s a list of what’s recently been available to children at Swaffield: