Our intent for Physical Education at Bitterley is to fundamentally promote a life-long love of being active and to embed a strong understanding of the importance of keeping fit, healthy and active. We aim to engage all pupils in regular physical activity for both fitness and enjoyment that will follow the children through their school lives and beyond. We aspire to have a high level of children participating in extracurricular sports clubs.

Our intention is to allow all children to take part in meaningful competition and to participate in a range of competitive and non- competitive activities. Through this, we aim to promote fair play and team work through delivery of a range of lessons and events.

Swimming is an important life skill for children to learn, it is our intention for children to leave Bitterley Primary School with the ability to swim at least 25 metres using a range of different swimming strokes.

Implementation

At Bitterley, children participate in PE lessons which last up to 2 hours each week. Children in all year groups take part in active breaks during core subjects and begin their days with a mindfulness yoga session.

KS2 children are given leadership opportunities throughout the year and regularly lead the warm up in PE lessons and run clubs for our younger children. Children are also encouraged to provide their peers with feedback during a lesson to develop their leadership skills and team work.

Children in KS1 and KS2 are provided with lunch times and after school clubs to support their love of being active. Children from Years 1-4 participate in swimming lessons throughout the year.

At Bitterley, we hold various sporting events throughout the year, ranging from sports day to celebration for National Sports Week, where pupils learn about different sporting role models and are encouraged to make links across the curriculum.

Children are given opportunities to participate in local sporting events in a range of sports such as cross country and netball. Year 5 and 6 children also benefit from training from local schools through the delivery of Jumping Jaxx training.

Teaching staff take part in regular CPD training in the form of staff meetings to keep up with recent research and with upskilling training from local professional coaches.

Impact

The impact of our approach to PE at Bitterley is that we have children who understand the importance of keeping fit and enjoy being active. The children are passionate about a variety of sports and have a good knowledge of sportsmanship and playing as part of a team. Our children have an understanding of sporting role models and playing fairly, as well as respect for different sports.

Our teaching staff enjoy teaching PE and have a good subject knowledge and are able to adapt their practice to suit the needs of individuals.

We have created links with external companies where children attend sports club outside of Bitterley.