Our PE curriculum is inclusive, engaging and challenging.  It is designed to nurture self esteem, enhance physical, mental and social health, provide competition, and improve the quality of life of our students through lifelong participation. We believe that students should enjoy their lessons, be active, have opportunities to be competitive, and learn the fundamental domain specific skills, rules, tactics and strategies of each curriculum topic.   

Our curriculum provides our students with a depth of knowledge for each physical activity.  This provides them with the necessary skill set and confidence to participate in these sports outside of the school setting.  Our extra curricular and school sport programme allows students to take their engagement further, into more organised competitive situations and to develop their skill set even more.  Our links with Bristol Bears and other sports clubs mean that students can continue that journey if they so wish.  We actively encourage them to do so.  

We have a curriculum that works equally well in our limited onsite facilities as it does at our sports fields at Failand.  Single and Double PE (core PE) have strands that run through all of them giving students consistency, challenge and focus.  Our culturally diverse student population is significantly able with high numbers of students with SEND. To meet the needs of all the learners we have developed an ambitious curriculum which offers powerful knowledge through ‘know’, ‘show’ and ‘grow’.  These first two - ‘know’ and ‘show’ - allow the students to learn and develop domain specific declarative and procedural knowledge through all areas of our curriculum..  The third one - ‘grow’ - focuses on wider concepts such as ‘confidence’, ‘motivation’ and ‘resilience’, which will positively impact the students not only in their sports participation but also across other areas of their lives.  

By designing a curriculum that is led by the needs of the student population, that is responsive and ambitious, and accepting of the challenges that our facilities provide, we believe that our PE curriculum provides our students with the skill set required to succeed in our subject, and enables them to thrive in our ever changing global society.

Our student population is changing and as such our curriculum needs to change with it.  We have created a curriculum that caters for all our students and allows them to feel success within and affinity with the subject.  We appreciate that our facilities can provide challenges and embrace this as a way of framing what we do, putting the yearly curriculum focus at the heart of each scheme of work.

Below is an overview of the curriculum focus for years 7, 8 and 9 in Single PE. 

In Year 7 students will explore the concept and understand the importance of  'physical literacy'. Competence, confidence,  knowledge & understanding and  motivation are covered so that students realise what underpins physical literacy and how it can be developed. They will improve their domain specific declarative and procedural knowledge of gymnastics, table tennis and orienteering. With this knowledge and understanding students move onto year 8.

Year 8 students will experience the true power of sport and physical activity when it comes to their personal development. Schemes of work including ‘Communication', 'Resilience',  'Emotional Intelligence' and 'Intra-personal skills' help students to understand their own personal qualities and explore ways to develop these further within sport and for the benefit of their character as a whole. They will improve their domain specific declarative and procedural knowledge of fitness, table tennis and orienteering.

Year 9 Students will build a connection with and understand how characters can be developed through PE and Sport. Exploring concepts such as ‘Sporting Values’, ‘Competition’, ‘Problem Solving’ and ‘the Power of Positivity’, students will realise the sheer value of PE and how it can be instrumental in developing positive personal characteristics. They will improve their domain specific declarative and procedural knowledge of basketball, volleyball and orienteering.

Below is an overview of the curriculum focus for key stages 3 and 4 in Double PE.

In year 7 students will explore physical literacy with a key focus on domain specific skill acquisition.  Students will learn the fundamentals of each activity with these motor skills being developed before moving on to more complex skill sequences or pressurised situations.  Students will be given opportunities to put these skills into practice allowing them to develop their decision making.  Leadership runs through all the year groups curriculum, with students being taught the skills to lead warm ups and assist the teacher.

In year 8 students will explore personal development with a focus on how being physically active can develop their physical, mental and social health.  Skills learnt in year 7 will be progressed and challenged through increasingly challenging practices which incorporate more co-actors, increased decisions, and a deeper understanding of the rules.  Discussion and question and answer time within lessons will focus on the curriculum focus.  Students will learn what it feels like to work physically hard.  

In year 9 students explore character development with a focus on the rules, strategies and tactics of the sports.  By this stage of their learning, students should be able to demonstrate a range of skills required for participation in the sport, so the attention moves to a closer look at the rules, tactics and strategies that each sport has and how to employ or adapt these depending on the scenario.  The students will have learnt what it feels like to work physically hard, and the benefits of this on their physical, mental and social health, and will incorporate this into their year 9 learning.  Character traits will be explored alongside the importance of winning and losing gracefully, sportsmanship and gamesmanship, and how to be competitive and respectful.

In year 10 students will explore effective leadership skills and be taught how to demonstrate these within their PE lessons and in their wider lives.  Through this, they will be given opportunities to develop their communication, confidence and organisational skills.  Students will be challenged to recognise the different forms of leadership and the effectiveness of each.  This will be taught through the prism of sport with the strands from previous years being recapped and incorporated into the lessons.

In year 11 students will explore the opportunities for being active for life once they leave year 11.  Students will be given a choice to the curriculum path they follow, with a broader range of activities and mixed classes.  Students will be taught the health and well-being benefits of being physically active in relation to stress relief and academic achievement.  Sports Education will be incorporated into some schemes of work allowing students to feel the benefits of competition and utilising what they have learnt through years 7 to 10.

PE Curriculum

Teachers are confident and excited to deliver the PE curriculum.  They see the worth of what we do, and believe in the power it has to positively impact our students.  Teachers are empowered to deliver the schemes of work in the most appropriate way, to make adjustments according to their class, and share good practice.

Lessons are structured with routines in place so that students feel confident, a sense of belonging and at ease regardless of their prior knowledge of the topic.  Arrival activities are engaging and consistent.  Through expert delivery of the concepts alongside the domain specific skills, our students are confident in their learning of PE.  Teachers are skilled at using live feedback and praise to motivate and progress students in their learning.

Key concepts are taught using dual coding, clear and repeated model examples, regular question and answer sessions and time for student reflection.  Students are taught to challenge themselves and others in a constructive and understanding manner, using terminology and phrasing that is appropriate and polite.  All concepts are explored through the lens of PE and the wider world. 

We communicate clearly and effectively to our students, giving explicit instruction and tailoring our delivery style to the needs of the class, with our SEND students at the forefront of this.  We provide challenge for all, including our AIM and SEND students, through careful consideration and scaffolding of the practical activities alongside our questions and answer sessions and class discussions.  Class discussions, think-pair-share, agree-build-challenge are all frequently used.  We praise those students who try, who give an answer, the act of giving being more important than whether it is right or wrong.

Sport specific skills are modeled and built into the curriculum with time for students to learn them.  The activities are scaffolded to increase in difficulty as the students ability increases.  We use differentiation effectively and inclusively by reducing the number of decisions required, the number of co-actors, and the other strategies. All students are part of the main lesson.. 

Assessment takes place at the beginning of the year for Double PE so that we can stream the students into the correct groups.  This takes place at Failand and is completed by teacher observation through skill performance and modified, small sided games.  These groups are fluid, with students who make quicker than expected progress moved into the relevant group.  Our group 1 students are chosen for the extra curricular fixtures.  This is due to the lack of space on school site for school sport training to take place - football, rugby, hockey, netball.

Formative assessment takes place in every PE lesson.  Teachers observe, give live feedback, and observe again.  Class discussions, question and answer sessions allow for teachers to check on students prior and current learning.  

Assessment in Single PE takes place at the end of each term through teacher observation. The assessment is structured to allow students to demonstrate their learning through the know, show and grow objectives.  These assessments feed into the whole school assessment policy.

Our assessment policy in Single and Double PE is being reviewed with the wider challenges of effectively assessing in PE being reflected upon.  Our aim for this year is to develop our assessment so that it is more meaningful for our students and parents/carers with clear tangible areas for development.

By the end of key stage 3 students will have developed their understanding of physical literacy as well as developed their ability to perform the fundamental skills and movement patterns required in a range of sports and physical activities.  Through the Single PE concept curriculum students will be able to demonstrate a growth mindset, to respond to failure in a positive manner, and to see the benefit that PE can have on confidence and attitudes.  During these lessons they will also have developed their declarative knowledge in gymnastics, netball and orienteering.  In gymnastics, they will be able to identify and describe the different types of travel, roll, balances, anf flight and be able to perform many of these in short sequences (procedural knowledge).  In netball, they will be able to identify and describe (declarative knowledge) the different types of pass, footwork, dodge, shooting technique and basic rules.  They will also be able to perform (procedural knowledge) many of these in practices and small sided games. In orienteering they will be be taught how to read a map using the key (declarative) and use that knowledge to find the symbols (procedural knowledge) around the school.

In Double PE the boys groups will be able to demonstrate a range of fundamental skills in small sided modified game situations in rugby, football and cricket (procedural knowledge).  They will be able to perform the the core skills using sound technique in isolation and in competitive skill practices.  They will be able to describe the core skills and give examples of when they would be used in sport specific situations (declarative knowledge).

The girls will be able to demonstrate a range of fundamental skills in small sided modified game situations in netball, rugby, football and hockey (procedural knowledge).  They will be able to perform the core skills using sound technique in isolation and in competitive skill practices.  They will be able to describe the core skills and give examples of when they would be used in sport specific situations (declarative knowledge).

By the end of key stage 4 students will be able to explain the benefits of physical activity on their physical, mental and social health.  Students will be able to expand on this and explain the benefits of being physically active on their general health and wellbeing with reference to their academic achievement.  They will be able to compete and perform across a number of sports and physical activities (procedural knowledge) using a variety of domain specific skills effectively.  Our students will have the skill set to take part in sport outside of school including a sound knowledge of the rules, tactics and strategies of this sport. Our students will be able to lead themselves and others in warm ups and practices and demonstrate effective leadership in match situations. 

PE Achievements