PE at Danson Primary School

At Danson Primary School we are passionate about the importance of Physical Education as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. We challenge our children to continually develop and improve their knowledge and understanding through a skills based curriculum. These lessons are led by our specialist Sports Instructor, which ensures children get the best possible opportunities to succeed through high quality PE teaching. Using Complete PE children learn a wide range of activities developing both the physical and social elements of this subject. 

Aims

The aim of our PE curriculum is to ensure all children have the opportunity to a variety of sporting achievements. We encourage them to work at their own pace and challenge themselves throughout. Adding to this, we provide a variety of clubs outside of the PE and focus our Sports Premium on developing competition and opportunities for all. 

Teaching and learning

Long Term Plan 2022-23

Our PE is a rolling curriculum in which the children cover a variety of skills throughout their time in primary school. Below is the curriculum map for this year. 

Foundation stage:

Our foundation stage children learn PE from the first week of school and begin to develop both their gross and fine motor skills. They explore how to use a range of equipment and the basic skills that support them in their PE journey at Danson. These are also embedded within their curriculum as part of the Early Learning Goal of Physical development. 

This includes:

• Move freely and with pleasure and confidence in a range of ways, such as slithering, shuffling, rolling, crawling, walking, running, jumping, skipping, sliding and hopping.
• Mounts stairs, steps or climbing equipment using alternate feet. 
• Walks downstairs, two feet to each step while carrying a small object. 
• Run skilfully and negotiates space successfully, adjusting speed or direction to avoid obstacles. 
• Can stand momentarily on one foot when shown. 
• Can catch a large ball.

Key Stage 1

The Key Stage 1 curriculum is based around 7 core themes (Ball skills, dance, gymnastics, health and wellbeing, locomotion, team building, attack v defence):

The skills in Key stage 1 are vital for their age and are built on as they progress through the school. These include:

• Basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching.
• Developing balance, agility and coordination, and begin to apply these in a range of different activities.
• Participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending.
• Perform dances using simple movement patterns.

Key Stage 2

As the children move through the school to Key Stage 2, it is split into lower and upper key stages.

Lower Key stage 2 is arranged into 6 themes and provides an opportunity for us to select our own sport specific section.  (Athletics, Dance, Games, Gymnastics, Outdoor Adventure Activities, health, wellbeing and mindfulness)

Lower Key stage 2 continues to master the skills from KS1 and apply these across a range of sports. The skills include:

• 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.
• 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.

Upper Key Stage 2 

Upper Key stage 2 is arranged into 6 themes and provides an opportunity for us to select our own sport specific section.  (Athletics, Dance, Games, Gymnastics, Outdoor Adventure Activities, health related fitness)

In Years 5 and 6 children continue to master the skills learnt previously. In addition to this we also take years 5/6 to a local swimming pool weekly, where we employ 3 swimming coaches. We keep the groups small to provide children with the maximum opportunity to complete the curriculum target of being able to swim 25m independently by the time they leave year 6. 

Active minutes

Outside our planned curriculum lesson, the children also participate in active minutes where they complete a variety of activities such as the ‘line game’, bowling competitions or daily mile. Each activity is aimed at enjoyment and staying active without necessarily the competitive element that some children find challenging. This ensures all children have an opportunity to experience the excitement and fulfilment of physical activity. It also encourages our children to develop a positive attitude to being and staying healthy beyond our current setting. Although this is a non-competitive part of PE, these sessions are adapted for each class and children can compete against others if they wish.  

Assessments

PE assessment is done by various methods including throughout the lesson and across the term.  

Formative assessment or ‘ongoing’ assessments take place throughout their PE lessons. Children are provided a variety of opportunities where they can give constructive feedback to themselves and others. Teachers also assess their tactical awareness, skills and social elements within these lessons as well as any connections the children can make with previous learning. This information then supports future learning needs, describes students’ progress, and determines their strengths and areas of development for class and cohort..

Also at Danson we use Complete PE for Summative assessment. This is an overall assessment which takes place at the end of an interval or unit. It is also described as ‘Assessment of Learning’ as it provides a synopsis of students’ levels of attainment and progress at the end of a specified interval.

Extra-curricular activities

Outside of normal PE lessons, we have arranged a full competitive sporting programme where children have a variety of opportunities to attend clubs in each year group, as well as more competitive sports. As with all sporting opportunities, we always encourage a positive social attitude towards team games enabling the children to understand the importance of teamwork and cooperation.

The children have an opportunity to try different physical activities after school that are run by both the school and outside agencies. These include AW football, dance and multiskills.

In year 5 and 6, the children have more opportunities to represent the school. In the last few years we have attended the girls tag-rugby festival, cricket and football as well as competing against other schools in netball.

Team and Pupil Successes 

At Danson, we believe in developing the child beyond PE lessons. Our variety of extra-curricular opportunities have provided many of our children with a variety of competitive opportunities. It is at these events that we have had many great successes.  More recently, our Year 6 Girls Cricket team thrived and represented Bexley in the Kent final and the London School Games in 2021.  This was a huge achievement for the girls and we are extremely proud of them.

It was not only the girls that showed their desire to succeed, but in previous years our Boys football has seen us win Bexley and Kent competitions and even reaching a national final held at Wembley Stadium - a proud moment in our Danson sporting history!. 

We have also had individual achievements come through Danson and many of our children have represented at district, county and National level. 

• Whilst Josh Inglis was at Danson, he achieved the Outside achievement award for his dedication for swimming. He has continued this commitment and has continued to represent his club at national level. Currently he is in the top 50 swimmers in England at his age group. 
• We always knew that Mikey Moore was a budding football player and it was no surprise when he signed for Tottenham Hotspur. To our delight, he has continued to play for them, representing the club and England at u19 level.
• When at Danson, Mason Hunter won the outstanding achievement in Sport award. He continued his love of sport and went on to captain his secondary school football team, winning the Kent Cup in each year of secondary school, an impressive accolade - that has never been achieved before. Mason also played at District and Kent level of school boy football.  
• It is not only football where we have seen talent. Bailey Berry always enjoyed the challenges of netball and has represented Kent in Netball throughout her time at secondary school.  
• Completing the list is Devon O’Carroll, who after captaining the school Cricket team to success in the Bexley competitions. Went on to represent her club Bexley Cricket Club, she was then selected for the Kent Girls Cricket team. 

Leadership

Our PE provides children opportunities  to develop leadership in PE and throughout School Sport. We have a Sports Council who have various opportunities to discuss future planning of PE. These councillors are voted by the children and will have termly meetings to shape where the school prioritises its PE focus using pupil voice and feedback.  

Platinum School     

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme that was launched in 2012 and is facilitated by the Youth Sports Trust. It is designed to reward and recognise school engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active.

As a school, we are committed to using School Games to engage those young people who haven’t previously been active or represented our school and try to ensure positive experiences in school and beyond. We also believe in the power of physical activity and give opportunities for these young people to be a participant, leader, official or volunteer.

We are delighted that Danson Primary School is a School Games Platinum Mark Award school and are extremely proud of our pupils and staff for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sports.