Intent, implementation, and impact Statement: 

Physical Education at Bitterley CofE Primary School

At Bitterley, we encourage pupils ‘to be courageous, strong and do everything in love.’

The importance of understanding that each of us is rooted in love is not under-estimated at Bitterley.

‘Love always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’  Corinthians 13:7 Trusting in love gives us the courage to be ourselves. Courage is from the Latin ‘coeur’ which means ‘To tell the story of who you are with your whole heart’. Our intention is for our pupils to leave Bitterley prepared for ‘Life in all its fullness’ and ready to tell their own stories.

Our Christian vision has driven us to create a bespoke curriculum for our pupils that pursues the acquisition of wisdom, knowledge and skills alongside educating for aspiration, dignity, and respect. It is also our intention to nurture a sense of community, so that all members of our school develop a deep sense of belonging, both locally and within the wider world. We believe that these attributes will support our pupils to live well together and flourish, as they move on to High School and beyond.

Our curriculum offer is therefore divided into three focus areas: ‘Courage, strength and love’:

Courageous – Living wholeheartedly. Using the knowledge and skills in our curriculum to choose our own path free from stereotyping; being curious, aspirational. Speaking out for those who do not have a voice. 

Strength – Having a growth mindset, developing resilience, being able to persevere to achieve our goals to create a confident well-rounded citizen in our diverse world.

Love – Embracing our neighbours, developing a greater awareness of the challenge’s others face in life and how we can make a difference in our school community, local community and further afield.  Through the curriculum we develop pupils understanding of challenges locally and globally. We teach pupils to listen with respect.

At Bitterley CofE Primary School, we believe that a carefully sequenced curriculum can empower our pupils and reduce social inequality, whilst providing the knowledge they need for the next stage of their education and beyond. We view our curriculum as a spiral: the mapped-out journey of concept building leading to a change in long term memory and an increase in knowledge. Through progressive concepts throughout the curriculum, the children will develop a deep and rich understanding, meaning that the knowledge and skills that are acquired are more likely to be remembered. Our curriculum sets out WHAT will be learned and WHEN it will be learned. We understand that cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. Through our curriculum we provide different experiences and opportunities to support the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child gains over time

Intent

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.