Physical Education - KS4

A little progress each day adds up to big results

Curriculum Vision

At New Bridge Pathways, we believe that a high-quality education in PE will teach pupils to develop skills within an environment that meets their needs and can transfer skills into other areas of their learning for life and to help develop and support character building, teamwork, communication and resilience. Pupils should understand the importance of exercise and healthy eating.

The overarching aim for PE at New Bridge is:

To give opportunities to all learners through a wide and varied curriculum which allows them to develop their knowledge and learning in PE.
To motivate learners to fully engage in PE and promote a healthy and active lifestyle leading to a positive self-esteem and well-being.
To develop resilience throughout the curriculum and have opportunities to compete in events either within the Multi Academy trust or inter school competitions.
To be able to accept winning and losing and learn how to improve and reflect on their own and their peers’ performance.
To develop leadership qualities and to help others within the school to become good positive role models and for learners to aspire.
To access extra-curricular activity that meets their needs.

PE lessons at New Bridge School

Pupils are taught in form tutor groups by a specialist teacher in an appropriate PE setting. Activities are adapted and pupils are placed into small groups based on ability. Higher level pupils are stretched and challenged and support lower level peers to enhance their leadership skills.

All pupils are given the opportunity to reflect and identify strengths and weaknesses in their own and others performance. The curriculum is founded on four key strands: Skill, Understanding, Resilience and Attitude to Learning. These are implemented in the following ways:

Skill

Skills are taught through topics which are linked to national and regional competitions as well as school-based tournaments. PE is highly inclusive and teaching strategies are employed to ensure pupils of all abilities can develop their skills.

Pupils learn skills in the following sports: basketball; health related fitness/athletics; trampolining; tag rugby/rugby; cricket/table cricket; rounders; table tennis; football; Boccia.

Teachers break down the fundamental techniques in isolation and teach these through simple drills and repetition with a graduated approach to increasing the complexity and level of fluency of these over the Key Stage. Within each of the sports the following skills are taught by simplifying key concepts, delivered in a progressive order, to build confidence:

Teamwork and the ability to overcome opponents in competitive situations in team and individual games (e.g. rugby/cricket/basketball/football).
Tactics and decision making in competitive sports.
Simple reasoning and questioning in attempting to solve problems.
Officiating low stakes practice in some sports.

Understanding

Embedded within all lessons are opportunities to develop and increase pupils understanding of the different sports. This includes understanding of:

The basic skills, techniques and tactics used in sports and physical activities.
the fundamental rules and regulations for a range of sports and the need for officials

the components of a warm up and cool down.

the immediate effects of exercise of body and basic training methods to improve cardiovascular fitness.
The importance of leading fit and healthy lifestyles including extracurricular sports clubs.

Resilience

Central to the PE ethos is the theme of Resilience and teaching young people to develop their skills in this area. Through the teaching of different sports and competitive practice the following areas of this concept are taught:

Positive mindset and aspirations – teachers coach pupils on the meaning of a positive mindset and all staff model this in their own actions. Pupils are exposed to Destination Champions and past alumni who have succeeded in sport and fitness.
Dealing with others – pupils are taught the components of teamwork and build their skills by identifying any areas of weakness and working on small targets related to these.
Emotions – lessons support pupils to develop and practise suitable strategies to help manage and self-regulate their emotions as independently as possible.
Coping with failure and the fear of failure – through the different sports taught, teachers develop pupil’s confidence and provide opportunities for them to take risks in a safe and limited way.
Achieving success – teachers deliver the curriculum using inclusive strategies which can be replicated by every pupil to ensure that there are no barriers to being successful in a sport.
Helping others – lessons contain peer to peer teaching, peer led coaching and sports leadership segments.

Attitude to Learning

Pupils are supported to develop the following positive habits which support their attitude to learning. Pupils are taught how to:

Settle quickly and be ready for learning.
Take responsibility for learning.
Work as independently as possible.
Develop their learning by questioning.
Follow all instructions.
Take responsibility for their own and others safety.

This is achieved through good communication of expectation, positive reinforcement, modelled behaviour and individual small step target setting. Technology is integral to the implementation of PE and is used in a variety of ways The Hudle app is used for peer and self-assessment.

Pupil Voice

Mr Darnborough makes me try my best in PE.