St Joseph's Catholic Primary School (Nympsfield)

PE at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ Mark 12:30

Our vision for PE at St Joseph’s Physical Education (PE), as a statutory subject, is valued with aspiration and delivered with high expectations. This enables children to ‘succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities’, where we provide children with opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding for ‘pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness’ (DFE Physical Education).

At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, our Physical Education curriculum is rooted with the vision that our children are inspired to be a physically active generation, who seek to nurture and care for the life and dignity of their own human selves, supporting their physical health and mental well-being as children and beyond into their adult lives. Furthermore, we believe every child has the right to participate and we strive to support all children to REACH to achieve their personal best, equipping them in their learning to make progress and experience success; being the best they can be, both physically and mentally. Through our inclusive curriculum, children develop a profound sense of solidarity, competing as a team, demonstrating intrinsic kindness and respect towards one another.

To achieve and progress children’s physical development in PE throughout their time at St Joseph’s, I have created an informed curriculum progression of skills, which builds on their knowledge, skills and understanding, year on year, across a broad range of physical activities. It is my belief that meaningful participation in Physical Education, which we endeavour provide, can greatly impact each child’s ability to thrive, physically, emotionally, mentally and academically. It is my hope that this level of engagement and enjoyment with Physical Education will equip them with a life-long love of sport and physical activity.

What does PE look like at St Joseph’s?

At St Joseph’s, many of our PE lessons are delivered through the Montagu Academy, a set of outstanding and aspiring coaches, who have all achieved Junior County Representation as a minimum within their chosen sports. These coaches provide a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise across the curriculum, delivering motivational, inspiring and impactful lessons to our pupils, along with high-quality CPD opportunities for the staff. Our lessons focus on transferrable skills through the progression of the curriculum, enabling pupils to make smooth and relevant advances through their learning journey.

Furthermore, the coaches from Montagu Academy are able spot and select children demonstrating excellence within sport, inviting them along to their Talent ID programme in Gloucester for gifted and talented individuals. The successful selection of some of our children through this programme seen them go on to play at county level, some representing the county at national level, or be selected for youth programmes at Aston Villa Football Club and alike.

Alongside our professional coaches, lessons are delivered by our skilled teachers, following the structure and format of the Montagu Academy, ensuring the continuation of progression of skills. Additionally, we seek opportunities to work with other professionals within PE, which recently has included a professional dancer and soon to be Skippy John – an aspirational individual in the skipping world.

It is our hope, through an inclusive yet expansive curriculum, that children see PE as a diverse and exciting aspect of our core curriculum, igniting their passion to try new activities and explore their range of physical movement. The core values at the school has kindled an enthusiasm in our pupils to give it a go, where our children inherently display high expectations of themselves and others, enabling them to confidently: ‘develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities; be physically active for sustained periods of time; engage in competitive sports and activities and lead healthy, active lives.’ (National Curriculum KS1 and KS2).

Please take a look at how we implement and measure the impact of PE at St Joseph's in the PE intent, implement and impact document below.