‘Like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not whither; whatever they do prospers. ’ Psalms 1:3
Physical Education (PE)
Intent
We are committed to ensuring everyone develops competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities. We aim to ensure that pupils are physically active for sustained periods of time, as well as engage in competitive sports and activities. We aim that all pupils will lead healthy, active lives. Through accessing a diverse range of sports in learning, enabling all the opportunity to compete at both Level 1 and Level 2 competition, providing exit routes for our children, we endeavour to provide a quality sporting provision to enable all children to achieve, at their level, in developing a sporting mind and prowess.
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At West Wittering, PE and sports are a central part of our curriculum both in school and through the vast array of extracurricular activities offered and this has been recognised through the Gold Sports Mark award. The Government is providing each primary school in England with additional funding to improve the sports provision within schools and a detailed report of how this is used is compiled every year, helping us to action plan and make sustainable changes for the future.
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We are proud to be active members of the West Sussex School Sports Partnership to aid these aims.
At West Wittering School, we are proud to say, that we have a strong reputation for sportsmanship, participation and the sporting opportunities that we provide for the children. Each year we work towards achieving the nationally recognised award, 'The School Games Mark', and we are extremely proud that for the academic years of 18/19 and 19/20, we achieved the highest rating, Platinum, for the Physical Education and Sporting opportunities which the children receive.
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Our PE curriculum is delivered through 2 hours of dedicated PE lessons a week and 30 minutes a day of active time. This active time is made up of their play times, lunchtimes, before school and after school extracurricular activities, initiatives like dough disco and Jump Start Jonny, as well as ensuring lessons throughout the day provide some form of active learning.
As a whole school initiative and to ensure coverage, engagement and accessibility for all children, this year we introduced the scheme 'REAL PE' which uses an online platform called 'Jasmine'. This scheme is based on key skills the children need to learn in order to ensure they have the basics before moving onto game based sessions. This scheme uses stories, topics, songs and games to engage all pupils and is differentiated so that each child can access the PE lessons at their own level, gain a sense of achievement in each session and it provides competition, challenge and team work throughout. The principal of REAL PE, is that it is a child centred approach, based on six cogs of learning; physical, social, personal, health and well-being, cognitive and creative. All six areas work and develop together to produce fun, engaging and successful PE experiences for all.
While one session a week is following the REAL PE Scheme, the other weekly session is focused on a more games based approach, where the children are introduced to a range of sports, where the skills they are developing can be applied.
As a school, we believe physical education is vital in the development of children's knowledge, skills and understanding, so that children can perform with increasing confidence and competence in a range of physical activities. We also believe that, not only does Physical Education provide obvious physical benefits, but it also has a huge impact on the emotional wellbeing of the students as well as supporting and promoting the British values of teamwork, effort, fairness and respect! Here at West Wittering, we hope that the positive experiences the children receive in their PE lessons, will support them in developing lifelong interests in physical activity, to recognise their talents and encourage them to pursue these and to teach an understanding of how to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Below, you will find our Progression of skills document we created, as well as the REAL PE progression of skills documents which work hand in hand to demonstrate how we plan, challenge and ensure coverage and progress throughout the school. You will also find our 2 year Long Term PE plan.
Real PE Progression Doc
FUNS skills
PE Progression of Skills Doc
Here at West Wittering, we are extremely fortunate to have on site swimming facilities, which are used yearly, to provide all children in the school, with weekly swimming lessons. Swimming lessons occur 3 times a week for approximately 20 minutes a session throughout June and July. The lessons are taught by class teachers, to ensure they are designed to cater for the needs and ages of the children, starting with water confidence and basic skills in YR R and building up to swimming at length with a range of strokes and basic lifesaving skills for the older children. As a staff team we are passionate that all children are provided with the opportunity to learn to swim and understand that, in a locality such as ours, it is essential that children learn the basic level of water safety in order to enjoy and be safe around our beautiful beaches.
In addition to these swimming lessons, we are lucky enough to have a community link with 2XS, at West Wittering Beach, who each year, provide our year 5 and 6s with further water safety knowledge and the exciting opportunity to experience a range of water sports, including windsurfing and surfing.