St Bernadette's Catholic Primary School

At St Bernadette School we endeavour to develop a positive approach to physical education. We aim to produce skilful and intelligent performers who are able to select and apply skills, tactics and compositional ideas to various activities. Regardless of their ability, the children receive equal encouragement and are offered the opportunity to take... part in a wide variety of sporting activities. Pupils have two hours of PE timetabled per week through which we develop the six areas of activity as set out in the National Curriculum: Dance, Games, Gymnastics, Athletics, Outdoor and Adventurous Activities and Swimming. Children start swimming lessons in the Summer Term of year 4 and in the following autumn and spring term of year 5. The PE curriculum is either taught by the class teacher, a specialist PE teacher or sports coaches. In the Early Years Foundation Stage the children begin to explore a range of basic skills, actions and responses to music and other stimuli. In Key Stage 1 we harness the children's natural enthusiasm for movement, enhancing their skills. The children are given the opportunity to develop basic throwing and catching skills and then practice these skills in small sided games. During gymnastics and dance they explore movement and develop these movements through observation and repetition. In the Key Stage 2 the children CONTINUE enjoy using their creativity and imagination in physical activity. Within gymnastics and dance they learn new skills and link them to compose sequences of movement. The children are taught to analyse performance and develop their understanding of why physical activity is important to their health and wellbeing.Read More