Physical Education

At Northiam C of E Primary School we aim to create a culture that encourages all our children to be active and have positive attitudes towards physical activity and healthy lifestyles. 

We believe high quality physical education, school sport and a sense of competition will contribute to a range of positive outcomes for our children. Not only does it equip children with the skills to talk about the effects of physical activity, it also supports their physical development, movement skills and body confidence whilst contributing to their physical, mental and social well-being.

High quality physical education forms part of the curriculum. There is a myriad of competitive school sport opportunities for those children who want to take part, led by our own specialist PE teacher. We are part of the Rother Valley School Sport Association and partake in sporting discipline, cross country competition as well as playing sport against neighbouring schools.

Through competition children experience what both success and failure ‘feels like’; both important in terms of developing children’s reflective practice and sense of resilience. A vast array of after school sporting opportunities across all ages increase children’s understanding of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, prioritising the benefits of physical activity and healthy eating.

In PE lessons, children experience a range of different sports as part of the physical education curriculum developed by the Get Set 4 PE.  Led and mentored by our PE specialist teacher, all teachers teach PE using the Get Set 4 PE curriculum; basic and advanced skills coupled with sport specific knowledge are progressively acquired.

Pupils are taught to use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination; play competitive games and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending. They are encouraged to develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance and perform dances using a range of movement patterns. Opportunities are provided to take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team and this is an area that, as a school, we are looking to develop further.
Curricular sports include: football, multi-skills, cricket, extreme sports, netball, hockey, rugby, gymnastics, handball, lacrosse, dance, rounders, orienteering and athletics.

Swimming

Every child at Northiam receives swimming lessons for one academic term a year in KS2.  In line with the National Curriculum, each pupil is required to be able to do the following:

• Perform safe self-rescue in different water based situations
• Swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• Use a range of strokes effectively, for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke.

pe whole school curriculum map.pdf