Physical Education

PE in Years 1 and 2, introduces a curriculum based in play. The pupils experience a variety of activities to contrast with and complement their games sessions. The programme leads through modules in fitness with Cross Country as the focus; Basketball; Gymnastics; Racquet Sports and Athletics. This enables them success as individuals and the opportunity to take ownership of their own health and fitness. Within the department, for Early Years PE, we introduce the understanding of body systems, and wellbeing. This feeds into the ethos which promotes the holistic care of body and mind.

At Bede’s we do not just want our pupils to be fit for school, we want to promote and encourage fitness for life by giving our pupils the tools to work with from an early age, whatever their level, body type or personal preferences within sport and exercise. We aim to promote and encourage healthy and positive attitudes towards both.

What skills will my child develop?

• Pupils begin to explore the basic functions of the body systems in relation to ‘fun running’ and cross country training.

• Pupils are introduced to the concept of hand/eye coordination through the basic skill acquisition required to play basketball.

• Pupils are introduced to the concepts of core strength, agility and flexibility whilst practising and performing gymnastic routines, basic vaults and on the trampoline.

• Racquet sports, experimenting and exploring different types of racquets and balls to enhance skills such as agility, speed, coordination and balance.

• Athletics introduces and explores the acquisition and maintenance of fitness levels as well as the key focus on locomotor skills for running, jumping and throwing.

Gemma Towner

Head of Physical Education

Our Year 1 & 2 pupils have access to exactly the same framework as older pupils but through a play based curriculum.

With ever growing connections between the healthy body and healthy mind, our curriculum works to enable our younger pupils to take ownership of their physical and mental health by encouraging them to understand that there are many ways to exercise and how best to link the process to the desired outcome - and enjoy themselves on the way.

At Bede’s Prep we are fortunate in the geography of our site; the shingle beaches and hill runs of the South Downs provide not just a stunning setting but the very practical terrain to enhance the first Fitness Module focussing on Cross Country. We open our eyes as often as our lungs to breathe in the surroundings and revel in the outdoors whilst introducing running for fun. Pupils become familiar with finding their pulse before and after exercise compare and contrast the effect. Every level is catered for with added emphasis on running as a ‘squad’ within the lessons and supporting the achievements of all.

Basketball is a great team game to introduce hand eye coordination using different types of ball to safely practise the various skills and combinations required to play the game, from shooting, passing, dribbling and ball handling and footwork. Learning to play basketball in PE lends transitional skills to the core sports that we focus on in our games sessions and helps build camaraderie and teamwork as well as being really good fun.

In Gymnastics, pupils begin to development fundamental movement skills and our curriculum can cater for the ranging abilities within our classes in order to extend everyone with achievable, introductory activities across a range of apparatus. In addition to the fitness attributes of gymnastics there are also positive associations between FMS and a child’s social skills, self-esteem and academic performance not to mention being an outlet for choreography and expression through movement.

In PE Racquet Sports, we focus on introducing a range of equipment to encourage exploration and invention through game play. Pupils learn to apply trial and error to the equipment and come up with their own rules to organise game play, devising processes to achieve outcome devised by themselves. This supports independent, thinking, decision making and creativity within sport and encourages the children to have confidence in their ideas and share them with the groups.

The emphasis in the Athletics programme is on introducing ways and opportunities for pupils to challenge themselves to run faster or for a longer period, to throw an implement further and to jump further or higher. Our PE Curriculum outlines the specifics of each of the strands and encourages the success of the individual, with the aim to compete against oneself as much as anybody else in order to improve.

The lessons we learn about being competitive in sport are so important and emulate so much of what we experience in our wider lives - to win and lose graciously are such important testaments to the character of our students. What we hope to instil in our Bedian’s, is the desire to keep trying and never give up.