Physical Education

Our PE curriculum aims to provide children with knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• Games
• Dance
• Gymnastics
• Athletics
• Swimming
• Outdoor and adventurous activities

Intent: Introduction, Vision and Philosophy

At Harris Primary Academy Merton, our aim is for all children to develop physical fitness, motor skills, and a love for physical activity through engaging and inclusive activities that promote teamwork, confidence, and lifelong healthy habits. A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities. It should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect.

Through the teaching of PE we intend to:

• enable pupil’s to develop and explore physical skills with increasing control and co-ordination.
• encourage pupils to work and play with others in a range of group situations.
• develop the way pupil perform skills and apply rules and conventions for different activities.
• show pupil’s how to improve the quality and control of their performance.
• teach pupil to recognise and describe how their bodies feel during exercise.
• develop the pupil’s enjoyment of physical activity through creativity and imagination.
• develop an understanding in pupils of how to succeed in a range of physical activities and how to evaluate their own success.
• assess pupil’s learning, analyse and interpret the results to inform future planning and lessons.

The Merton School Sport Partnership (MSSP) hosts a series of sports events and competitions available to all children in KS1, KS2, and children with SEND. Their Scheme of Work directly ties in with these events and competitions, allowing children the opportunity to showcase their learning in a sporting environment. This is invaluable as access to these events adds to their enrichment in school. 

MSSP aims to promote physical activity and health for all children. One of their initiatives is the Daily Mile, designed to help improve overall fitness for all children. At HPAM, we have observed that many children lead a sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, we believe implementing a weekly mile walk would help improve children’s fitness and overall health. 

MSSP has its own assessment tracker that follows their Scheme of Work. The children would be regularly assessed by the class teacher, and the data would be recorded and stored in an Excel spreadsheet. There are three main categories of assessment in each unit: head (creativity, understanding, and decision-making), heart (fair play, leadership, and social skills), and hands (fitness and physical literacy). Each unit has specific assessment criteria, allowing teachers to assess children at bronze, silver, or gold levels. This ensures regular and accurate assessments of each child. 

Implementation: What does PE look like? An overview:

PE develops a child’s knowledge, skill and understanding, so that they can perform with increasing competence and confidence in a range of physical activities. A varied curriculum is in place to support this, with activities including: dance, athletics, gymnastics, games, swimming and water safety and outdoor adventure activities. The vision of the Merton School Sport Partnership is to ensure all young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities and those less engaged in physical activity have the opportunity to participate in high-quality physical education and have wider opportunities to engage within the community. 

Our PE curriculum is designed using the Merton School Sport Partnership scheme of work, ensuring clear progression in knowledge, skills and physical development from Early Years through to Year 6. 

In Early Years, pupils focus on developing fundamental movement skills, including balance, coordination, agility and spatial awareness, providing the foundations for future participation in sport and physical activity. 

In Key Stage 1, pupils participate in Athletics, Gymnastics, Dance and Games. The Games units are deliberately non-sport specific, allowing children to develop and master the fundamental skills of sending, receiving, striking, travelling, attacking and defending before applying them to specific sports later in the curriculum. This approach ensures that all pupils develop strong physical literacy and confidence in movement. 

As pupils move into Key Stage 2, they begin applying these fundamental skills within a range of sports. The curriculum provides a broad balance of activities, including hand sports (Basketball), foot sports (Football) and racquet sports (Tennis), alongside Athletics, Dance and Gymnastics. This ensures pupils experience a wide range of physical activities and develop transferable skills across different sporting contexts. 

The curriculum has been carefully sequenced so that skills are revisited and built upon year after year. Gymnastics and Dance develop balance, control, coordination and creativity, while Basketball, Football and Tennis provide opportunities to apply skills within increasingly competitive situations. Athletics allows pupils to develop speed, stamina, jumping and throwing techniques while encouraging personal challenge and improvement. 

Alongside PE lessons, pupils have opportunities to participate in clubs, competitions, performances and leadership roles, helping them develop confidence, teamwork, resilience and a lifelong enjoyment of physical activity.

KS1:

KS2:

The National Curriculum states that:

Early Years

We encourage the physical development of our pupil in the Early Years as an integral part of their work. We relate the physical development of the pupil to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for pupils aged three to five years of age.

We encourage the pupils to develop confidence and control of the way they move, and the way they handle equipment. We give all pupils the opportunity to undertake activities that offer appropriate physical challenge, both indoors and outdoors, using a wide range of resources to support specific skills.

Key Stage 1

Pupils should develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others. They should be able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

Pupils should be taught to:

• master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and coordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
• participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
• perform dances using simple movement patterns.

Key Stage 2

Pupils should continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement. They should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other.

They should develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.

Pupils should be taught to:

• use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
• play competitive games, modified where appropriate and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
• develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance
• perform dances using a range of movement patterns
• take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
• compare their performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best.
• swim competitively and proficiently for at least 25m
• use a range of strokes effectively
• perform self-rescue in different water based situations

In the Harris Federation, PE is an important subject in which pupil learn the importance of an active lifestyle and have the opportunities to play in competitive sport.

All pupils (Year 1-6) receive 2 hours of PE teaching a week.

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in PE lessons. Our principle aim is to develop the pupil knowledge, skills and understanding and we do this through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities. Teachers/ Coaches model sporting skills then provide pupils with opportunities for them to practise their newly learnt skills. Teachers/ coaches draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other pupils and we encourage the pupil to evaluate their own work as well the work of other pupils.

Additional PE Opportunities

We aim to provide a variety of sporting opportunities. These encourage pupils to further develop their skills in a range of the activity areas. The focus sport in each lesson changes each term in the school year. As well as sporting opportunities within the school community, we also enter partnership and county sporting events. The pupils have opportunities to competitively play in tennis, athletics, rugby, cricket, hockey, netball and dance. These experiences allow for pupils to apply their sporting skills, develop team skills and learn how to play competitively.

In KS2, pupils take part in a Federation wide sporting event, either as a participant or as a spectator.

How will we judge the impact of the PE Curriculum?

Pupils have a wide range of physical ability. Whilst recognising this fact, we provide suitable learning opportunities for all pupils by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child and in doing so raise pupil’s health (considering childhood obesity) and fitness levels, improve skills and develop pupil’s resilience, teamwork and perseverance (school values).

The use of assessment and by talking to pupils the quality of lessons and confidence in the teaching of PE improves and as a result the enjoyment and positive outcomes increases.

Implementation: What does PE look like? An overview:

Assessment in PE follows the Merton School Sport Partnership Head, Heart and Hands framework, allowing teachers to assess pupils' physical competence alongside their personal development and understanding of physical activity.

• Head – What pupils know and understand about the activity, including rules, tactics and strategies.
• Heart – Pupils' attitudes, behaviours and personal qualities such as teamwork, resilience, determination and sportsmanship.
• Hands – The physical skills and techniques demonstrated during activities.

Teachers assess pupils throughout each unit using observations, discussions and pupil voice. Pupil voice provides valuable insight into pupils' enjoyment, confidence and understanding of PE, helping to inform future planning and provision.

To support assessment, photographic evidence is collected during lessons and compiled into year group PowerPoints. These provide examples of pupils participating in activities and developing skills, alongside teacher commentary explaining the learning objective, activity and progress being demonstrated. This evidence supports assessment, monitoring and the celebration of achievement across the PE curriculum.