At Four Oaks, we understand the importance of moving our bodies, developing positive relationships and solving problems! We want our children to love Physical Education. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up enabled to become healthy, active and fit in a range of ways such as footballers, gymnasts, dancers etc. We want them to embody our core values: we all “strive to be the best we can be”.

The PE curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their skills. We want our children to remember their PE lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the PE opportunities they are presented with!  Bringing PE alive is important at Four Oaks Primary School.

The PE curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas.

We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the PE National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. For example, Year 4 complete 6 weeks of water sports as part of our quest to introduce our pupils to as many different sporting disciplines as possible, including canoeing, sailing and raft building.

We want our children to use the vibrancy of our great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and appreciate what they have. We achieve this by providing a PSHE curriculum, with British Values and our ‘Golden’ values placed at the heart of everything we do. This often feeds into the PE curriculum. The Year 5 and 6 children enjoyed taking part in football league this year which was organised by the Liverpool schools football association. The children developed their team working skills and were thrilled to be able to put into practise all the football skills they had learnt in school. “It was great to represent our school in the competition. I enjoyed playing football with my friends, we worked hard as a team, supported each other and tried our best!” We enrich the children’s time in our school with memorable experiences and provide opportunities which may otherwise be out of reach. We firmly believe that it is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children.

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in PE, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. PE is taught twice a week as a part of half-termly topics, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. This ensures sufficient time is allocated to PE and that subject matter can be revisited. We believe that by crafting our curriculum in this way, we improve the potential for our children to retain what they have been taught, to build on skills and thus improve the rates of progress they make.

We focus our teaching on six main strands of Physical Education: dance, invasion games, gymnastics, striking and fielding games, athletics and net and wall games. These are revisited year on year where pupils progressively build their skills and knowledge. In addition to this we provide specialist swimming teaching to pupils in both Key Stage 1 and 2.

The PE curriculum at Four Oaks Primary School is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons based on both the required curriculum coverage and the children’s interests. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on teacher judgement, ensuring progression of knowledge and skills from year group to year group. PE teaching focuses on enabling children to think as sportsmen or sportswomen.

Physical Education subject specific skills, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all members of staff who deliver PE - both school staff and outside agencies. This underpins all work in PE and forms a focal point for display areas and provides a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. We develop the following characteristics:

• A willingness to practise skills in a wide range of different activities and situations, alone, in small groups and in teams and to apply these skills in chosen activities to achieve exceptionally high levels of performance.
• Increased levels of physical fitness.
• The ability to remain physically active for sustained periods of time and an understanding of the importance of this in promoting long-term health and well-being.
• The ability to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders, organising and officiating, and evaluating what needs to be done to improve, and motivating and instilling excellent sporting attitudes in others.
• Show originality, imagination and creativity in their techniques, tactics and choreography, knowledge of how to improve their own and others’ performance and the ability to work independently for extended periods of time without the need of guidance or support.
• A keen interest in PE. A willingness to participate in every lesson, positive attitudes and the ability to make informed choices about engaging fully in extra-curricular sport.
• The ability to swim at least 25 metres before the end of Year 6 and knowledge of how to remain safe in and around water.

We empower our staff to organise their own year group curriculum under the guidance of the subject leader. Teachers are best placed to make these judgements. Staff develop year group specific long-term curriculum maps which identify when the different subjects and topics will be taught across the academic year. The vast majority of subjects are taught discretely but staff make meaningful links across subjects. They link prior knowledge to new learning to deepen children’s learning.

PE is timetabled to be delivered twice a week for KS1 and KS2. This helps to ensure sufficient time is allocated to PE and that PE subject matter can be revisited frequently. All children from Year 2 to Year 6 receive specialist coaching in dance and gymnastics for a half term each. We believe that by crafting our curriculum this way, we improve the potential for our children to progress and it enables staff to receive regular CPD from the specialist coaches. EYFS receive a weekly dedicated PE lesson plus daily access to age-appropriate Physical Development during continuous provision indoor and outdoor focussing on fine and gross motor development.

At Four Oaks Primary School we provide a variety of opportunities for PE learning inside and outside the classroom. For example, the Year 5 children participated in a dodgeball competition organised by Year 12 students at NLA. They were thrilled to take part and proudly showed Miss Robinson their medals on returning to school. Our regular multi-sports clubs encourage our children to lead healthy, active lives and provide opportunities to further develop their social and sporting skills. “I love the sports club! We play different games and learn how to be better at different sports! It is my favourite club!” commented a Year 3 child. Further Information:

The teachers complete tracking documents which detail any pupils who have not fully grasped a concept or skill. It is not uncommon for there to be a nil return or a very small number of pupils listed. Any pupil who has not confidently grasped a skill or knowledge will be supported through one or more of the following interventions: