PE and outside activities at St John's 

Our Intent for Physical Education    Wonder 

The Physical Education curriculum at St John’s is designed to build a positive experience of sport and physical activity at a young age that builds a lifetime habit of participation. We develop physical literacy through high quality and varied lessons that engage children of different backgrounds and abilities as well as increasing pupils’ personal skills such as working in a team, developing confidence to try new things and growing leadership skills. 

Within Key Stage 1 PE sessions, we aim to supply pupils with the foundations for sport and exercise. Our sessions are skill based, using different sports and activities to master key movements and physical and mental attributes to succeed.

In their sessions, they will be taught to:

• master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, 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.

In Key Stage 2, children build on the learning they have achieved in Key Stage 1 sessions, applying all their skills to individual sports. As well as physically, children will be challenged mentally, looking at tactics, teamwork and questioning how they can improve on performances.

In their sessions, they will be taught to:

• use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
• play competitive games, modified where appropriate [for example, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, rounders and tennis], and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
• develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance [for example, through athletics and gymnastics]
• 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.

Beyond the lessons, children can take part in a range extra-curricular clubs such as Gymnastics, Football, Fencing, Dance, Athletics, Cricket and multi-skills. Many of the children who attend these clubs have opportunities to attend tournaments and competitions, with local schools, throughout the year to represent the school.

Pupils have the opportunity to join in during timetabled USports sessions for active lunchtimes with a qualified sports coach.

We also provide enrichment days with sports that many children may have not experienced such as archery and opportunities for cross-curricula links such as PSHE with Amazing People school’s wellbeing assemblies from current sports stars.

Through a range of competitive sports and games and physical education activities such as gymnastics and dance. Over the course of their time at St Johns, pupils will have the opportunity to play a range of sports including football, netball, hockey, tennis, cricket, basketball, rounders and take part in a range of athletic disciplines.

Healthy Eating

Schools have an important role to play in reinforcing the importance of choices that lead to better health and good 'eating'. At St John's our curriculum gives children good knowledge about healthy living and how to pursue and achieve it. Children learn how our bodies work, why physical health is important and how to prepare food. They grow in competence in sport and physical pursuits - being active is a real enjoyment at our school. We prioritise these opportunities at lunchtimes, with Sports coaches to support development and interaction. We have continual access to cold drinking water stations around the school building (currently no tin use due to covid but we have taps to fill water bottles)

Our Aims

• Plan a challenging and well-sequenced curriculum, including learning about the body in PE, and science about healthy eating and cooking

• Provide opportunity for children to take physical exercise during the school day – with lots of opportunities to ‘get out of breath'.

School Food Plan

The government's strategy was published in 2013.

All children aged 4 to 7 (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) are entitled to free hot meals every day in England.

We provide this service at St John's CE Primary School.  Water is available, as stated above, to the children and is usually the drink of choice.