Our vision

At William Ransom School, our intention is to promote a healthy lifestyle and foster a lifelong love of physical activity.

Through twice weekly safe and exciting curriculum provision, supplemented by competition and opportunities for a range of extra curricular sports, we aim to develop children’s flexibility, stamina, strength, co-ordination and cardiovascular health. (See here for information on school sport and clubs: William Ransom Primary School - Sport at WR)

We want our children to appreciate the long-term benefits of regular exercise, being able to make informed decisions, adopting healthy attitudes towards and interest in a variety of physical activities. We aim to provide opportunities to develop ‘lessons for life’ such as good team-work, sportsmanship, self-improvement, self-discipline and the benefits of physical activity in maintaining good mental health.

We intend to deliver high-quality, dynamic teaching and learning opportunities, backed up by valuable assessment, that inspire all children to succeed in physical education and in developing a healthy and active lifestyle.

Implementation

We are committed to fostering a positive attitude towards competition as individuals, team members and spectators. Therefore, the school enters most of the inter-school sporting competitions on offer locally and through the Sports’ Partnership. In addition to this, intra-school competition is offered to all children in the form of end of unit class competitions, inter-House competitions and regular Key Stage 1 activity days.

PE lessons are well differentiated for all abilities and children are challenged to achieve their personal best. Lessons are well structured, using the curriculum documents in place, taught engagingly using correct subject vocabulary and build on what the children already know from previous years. Teachers continually assess children to identify what they need to do next in order to improve and further their learning. Each class also takes part in the ‘Daily Mile’ to increase the time children are active each day.

Children with additional needs are provided with appropriate support, enabling them to take part and gain confidence in building skills, understanding and motivation, within both PE lessons and through a range of 1:1 provisions run through the SENCo.

The school PE curriculum is structured to provide a range of physical activity experiences across the year groups and to build on what has come before. Every child participates to develop their skills and learning through competitive, team, individual sports and health related exercises; building on their physical and mental wellbeing.

Children gain a varied experience of fundamental skills; focussing on agility, balance, co-ordination and fitness. Children take part in individual skills, group skills and team games, using age appropriate PE equipment. During KS2 children will also have a series of structured swimming sessions taught by experienced external teachers.

We provide opportunities for children to engage in extra-curricular activities, both competitive and non-competitive.

PE and school sport is high profile throughout the school and staff are supported by the PE co-ordinators, Sports Apprentice and through a variety of materials to help develop teachers’ confidence, knowledge and skills in teaching PE.

Impact

The impact of positive PE and school sport on our children is clear. They will:

• have participated in a range of competitions and are able to regulate their emotions showing sportsmanship, competitiveness and respect. This is a skill that they will take with them into many areas of their future lives.
• make good progress within PE lessons, both within each individual unit and throughout their school lives.
• enjoy experiencing a broad range of different sports and physical activities as set out within the school’s PE curriculum.
• experience a range of clubs and events; participating alongside a range of children, both within their own school and further afield.
• understand the importance of living a healthy and active lifestyle, both physically and mentally.
• have a solid foundation of the core skills in PE.

This is monitored through:

• Regular pupil and teacher voice.
• Monitoring participation in clubs / tournaments / festivals / activity days - we can then invite individual children along to activities, ensuring everyone has an opportunity to represent their school in physical activity 
• Assessment – ongoing teacher assessment / teacher observations

Ensuring the children have a positive experience of sport and physical activity at a young age will help to build a lifetime of participation. PE will benefit their physical health and their mental wellbeing (increasing self-esteem and emotional wellbeing and lowering anxiety and depression). Children at William Ransom will be motivated and will use the skills they’ve learnt in PE in an effective way to live happy and healthy lives.

Progression within the Key Stages

EYFS

In the EYFS, we aim to provide our children with a great foundation in physical literacy; encouraging them to explore, problem solve and develop an enjoyment for PE whilst learning the fundamental movement skills. All children take part in daily sessions of 'Fresh and Fit' which includes a circuit of activities focussing on fitness, core strength and gross motor skills of jumping, throwing and moving in different ways. They access gymnastics and dance sessions linked to their interests and topics and go out for the Daily Mile.

KS1

Children then build on the fundemental movement skills through KS1; running, jumping, coordination, throwing, catching, kicking and striking. 

KS2

Having these strong core skills then allows further development throughout KS2, where children can transfer their existing skills and knowledge into a variety of specific sports. In Upper Key Stage 2, these skills are developed further still, through the addition of leadership, officiating, team work and the use of tactics within various sports.

All the sports and modules chosen within our school PE curriculum are used to build upon previous learning and ensure a well developed skill base and to foster the enjoyment of being physically active. Our children experience a wide range of sports throughout the year and within their time at WR. Combined with our varied sports clubs programme, we hope that all our children can find the ways of being physically active that they enjoy the most, to go on and be physically active for life.