Our PE Lead is Mrs. Horsfield

Intent

At St Edward’s Catholic Primary School we believe that PE is essential to the academic, social, emotional, spiritual and physical development of all children. An effective PE curriculum will improve children’s confidence and raise their self-esteem, as well as enabling them to develop positive attitudes about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It will encourage good sportsmanship and team work skills and therefore better equip them to be able to participate fluently within their social and work communities - as well as within sport – make and maintain effective healthy relationships, become aware of and monitor their own health and be able to assess risks and be comfortable when making ‘safe’ risk choices.

The main aims of PE are:

• To promote physical activity, physical development and healthy lifestyles through a range of well planned activities which meet the needs of all children.
• To develop social co-operation, positive attitudes and to compete with a sense of fair play and good sportsmanship.
• To promote lifelong learning, active participation and a thirst for competition.
• To promote and develop safe practice in physical activities through high quality opportunities and outcomes.
• To provide equal opportunities for all children regardless of race, gender, background or ability.
• To provide opportunities for all children to achieve their full potential and assist each individual to be the best they can be whilst raising achievement and supporting excellence.

Implementation

At St Edward’s we use RealPE as a base for our planning - this unique, child-centred approach challenges and supports every child.

All learning outcomes are taken from the National Curriculum schemes of work in order to ensure there is a progression of skills throughout EYFS, KS1 and KS2. We use RealPE and RealGym to guide our planning of the majority of the PE curriculum but augment this with dance, Outdoor and Adventurous activities Forest School, Swimming and traditional sport coaching. See Appendix 1 and 2 for the Yearly overviews.

Swimming is taught to the majority of children in KS2 by qualified swimming teachers from school at a local pool.

All classes will have the opportunity to participate in a sporting competition at least once each year. It is the subject leader’s responsibility to book these events and to organize participants and staff to support.

All children and staff should change into suitable clothing for PE which allows freedom of movement.

Children with long hair should have it tied back during PE and all jewellery must be removed by the child.  If a child cannot remove their earrings as they have been pierced within 6 weeks, the parent must provide a plaster or tape to surround the earring and must be applied by the child themselves.

A risk assessment will be carried out prior to the lesson when facilities, apparatus and equipment is checked by the teacher or coach. When handling and setting up apparatus, children must be supervised by an adult in order to ensure this is carried out safely. At St. Peter’s we conduct annual inspections of all our PE equipment, completed by Greenlight.  Records of their inspections can be found within the main school office.

Parents are invited to annual sporting events which involve their children, including our sports day. Throughout the year children are selected to represent the school in local sporting festivals and KCSP organized events and where possible, parents are invited to attend to show their support. Gymnastic routines and final dances are filmed and these are shown to parents during the parents sharing events.

There are a wide range of clubs offered by the school each week, although this changes according to the time of year and ongoing feedback from the children. Many of these are run for free by staff volunteers or by external coaches for a minimal fee.  We are actively involved with a number of local clubs and organisations, including Zumba, Bikeability, hockey, gymnastics and squash, and are always looking for different groups to add to the range of activities offered to our children and the wider community.

Welcome to our academic year 2023/ 2024!

We begin this term with four afterschool clubs:

Mondays- 3.15-4.15pm- Multi sports

Tuesdays- 3.15-4.15pm- Cricket

Wednesdays- 3.15-4.15pm- Karate

Thursdays- 3.15-4.15pm- Irish Dancing

Learn2Ride with Year 2- Wednesday 20th March

Yesterday, our Year 2 children attended a Learn2Ride day with Take Pride. This training built upon the balance bike activities that they participated in last year and will prepare them for 'Bike ability' skills in KS2. All children made huge progress across the day, some beginning as non-riders and progressing to perfect riding by the end of the day. 

The day enabled all children to be challenged at their own personal level and every child received a certificate to recognise their outstanding effort and progress made across the day. 

Well done, Year 2. You are superstars!

Biggest Ever Football Session- Friday 8th March

On Friday the 8th March, we joined the nation in taking part in the 'Biggest Ever Football Session.' Sixty-eight girls, from EYFS up to Year 6, took part in the lunchtime activities. We practised passing to each other, penalty shoot-outs and playing a game of football. The TSC coach joined in the activities to help the girls have the very best experience and join in the national initiative. Take a look at the pictures below.

The Great Big Dance Off 2024

On Tuesday 5th March, the dance team ‘Inspirational Mix-ups' travelled to the Chatham Central Theatre to participate in the regional dance competition, ‘The Great Big Dance Off’. This was the second year that St. Edward’s attended the event: having performed with a team of 30 students last year. 

The team was supported by an ex-pupil, who helped choreograph and develop the dance skills of all 12 children across six weeks. Time has been dedicated by Mrs King and Mrs Heath to support after-school sessions to make this possible. 

The team had an amazing afternoon at the venue and it was wonderful to, once again, see the talent of other schools around the county. The behaviour and respect demonstrated was impeccable and the support given towards each other, and other teams, was commendable. Families from the school community, supported the event: travelling to the venue and cheering us on. It is with great pride to announce that The ‘Inspirational mix-ups' won the event with an incredible 271 marks out of a possible 300. The next part of this adventure will see the team perform at the National competition, in Oxford, on 19th June 2024. 

Well done to all involved in this great adventure. We are very much looking forward to getting ready for the national competition in June! 

St Edward's participated in a multi skills festival that had been organised by Sittingbourne and Sheppey Games.

The children completed a round robin of activities that developed coordination, movement and control. Points were awarded throughout the afternoon and the teams worked together to improve their skills and celebrate their achievements.

Chance to Shine Cricket

Year 3 and year 4 participated in a speed stacking training day. The morning was filled with fun activities to develop co-ordination and essential skills for the activity: the afternoon saw tournaments between the two year groups.

'Sports For Schools' sponsored fitness circuit

On Wednesday 24th January, we had a visit from a GB Invictus competitor: Darran Challis. To date, Darran has achieved many personal goals, including: completing several marathons: participating in the Invictus games (including cycling and swimming) and taking part in a 300-mile Triathlon along with a UK Ironman. 

Throughout the afternoon, all of the children participated in a sponsored fitness circuit before attending an assembly with Darran, learning about his aspirational experiences. We then had a question and answer session where Darran taught us more about his incredible journey.

Children will now be busy collecting their sponsorship money. Funds raised will support the charity -Sports for schools- as well as be used to buy more sports equipment for St. Edward's.

In total, we have raised over £2400, from the generosity of the families here. A voucher worth £1300 has been given to the school to invest in PE within the curriculum and wish lists have been created by the children to bring more opportunities to them as a direct result of this event. As a result of the fundraising, children have received prizes from ‘Sports for Schools’ as a sign of their appreciation and the children’s achievements. Well done and a huge ‘thank you’ to the children and families of St. Edward’s Catholic Primary School!

This term we have started lunchtime football clubs: Wednesday is for girls and Friday is for boys. We have also have an afterschool football club running every Monday. Keep an eye on social media to look for updates on these clubs!

Cricket play leaders

Continuing our link with Kent Cricket Club, Jamie Harris has returned to train some of the Year 5 children to be cricket playleaders. Once trained, the children will be teaching other members of St Edward's School community, how to play the game of cricket. This will be another of our lunchtime activities that the children can embrace as we follow the path of the school's mission and achieve in God's love.

Let Girls Play

On Wednesday 8th March, the girls at St. Edward's will be playing football, during their lunch hour, to participate in the national initiative that is taking place: giving every girl the chance to play football. With this falling on International Women's Day, we hope that the girls will enjoy the opportunity to show their skills and develop their love for the game of football.  

Despite the weather, forty girls participated in the Let Girls Play activity: practising their skills and enjoying the opportunity to play together.

Great Big Dance Off competition

On Monday 27th March, 30 children from years 3, 4, 5 and 6 made their way to the Central Theatre in Chatham. Their dance team, known as 'The Inspirations' had choreographed their own routine and performed in front of a packed theatre. We were lucky to have support from our St. Edward's families as the children made us very proud. Their overall score was 194/ 300: gaining high points for crowd appeal.

A huge congratulations goes out to all of the dancers.

On Thursday 27th April, children from every year group participated in the World Daily Mile Challenge. The weather was kind to us and we enjoyed spending time outside, joining in the world-wide challenge.

KCSP Trust Sports Day- Monday 26th June

Today, 4 children from each class- Year 3 to Year 6-represented the school for the Trust Sports Day. The children rose to the challenge of completing the standing long jump; vortex throw; running races with distances between 50 metres and 400 metres as well as a final team relay race. The children were all amazing and have made the school community very proud in their achievements: a bronze in the standing long jump; a gold in the vortex throwing and three second-places in the running heats. Well done to all who participated!

St Edward's Sports Day 2023

A big 'thank you' to all of our families who supported our sports day. Your children put on a great show of team work, resilience, sportsmanship and determination. From the egg and spoon race to the obstacle course, every child tried their hardest and continue to show the values of St Edwards as they strive to achieve their very best.

The TSC football coach spoke to the whole school about his journey into becoming a sports coach. Having overcome so many hurdles to get where he is now, on his apprenticeship, he inspired us all to work hard and use perseverance and resilience to inspire others.