Our intent:

At South End Junior, we believe that Physical Education is vital to promote a healthy lifestyle and must be enjoyable. Active children are healthier both in body and mind therefore we strive for all children to have 60 active minutes a day to boost their social, emotional and mental health. At school and within the local community, children will learn fundamental skills and vocabulary alongside a broad variety of competitive sports within their broad and balanced PE curriculum.

Children will learn how to play individual and team sports to develop their understanding of tolerance and motivating others. All children will have the opportunity to represent their school throughout their time with us. They will learn how to support and appreciate each other whilst celebrating all successes, regardless of any barriers. A growth mindset and self-motivation are encouraged, helping to prepare children for tomorrow’s world. Key life skills are taught, including how to swim at least 25m, alongside water safety to prepare children for their future.

Please click here to view our PE long term overview. 

Our way:

At SEJS, we begin with the National Curriculum as our starting point.

We teach two PE lessons each week. In one lesson, the pupils are taught how to develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance through dance, gymnastics and Real PE. In their other lesson, they learn how to play competitive games, which have been modified where appropriate. The core skills of running, jumping, throwing and catching (in isolation and in combination) are taught at the start of units to help support the competitive games-based approach. Children are given the opportunity to reflect on their own performance during their lessons and engage in peer assessment also. We encourage pupils to challenge themselves, but also provide support so all children can succeed and develop a life-long love of sport.

Swimming, as in the NC, sits by itself. Each year group goes swimming for a period of 7 weeks. The children are split into small groups and given tailored instructions by qualified swimming coaches. By the end of KS2, children need to be able to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres. We strive to succeed in this and ensure additional swimming lessons are provided for Y6 if they have not met the expectation by the end of their 7-week block.

Our PE units are planned to correlate with cluster and school sports competitions. This allows for the children to learn a variety of sports while also being prepared to compete and represent the school. In addition to PE lessons, a richer offering is available through after school sports clubs led by teachers over the course of the year. These are fully inclusive clubs, allowing any children to participate who wish to.

We expect children to complete the Daily Mile which equates to 3 laps of the specially built track. Children are given the opportunity to run the Daily Mile at lunch time with the assistance of Young Sports Leaders (Y5/6 pupils). The Chief Medical Officers’ guidance on daily physical activity levels sets out that children should do at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. PE lessons, Daily Mile, lunch time clubs and after school sports clubs all help the pupils to achieve this. Our after-school clubs are run by Freestyle (an external provider) allowing for our pupils to participate in non-curriculum sports (football, dodgeball and yoga). We use our PE and Sports Premium funding for these additional opportunities. Sports Premium funding is used by primary schools to provide additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity.