Legal Framework
The National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Physical Education (2014) form the roots of Windmill L.E.A.D Academy’s PE curriculum. From this national documentation, Windmill L.E.A.D Academy’s PE curriculum has been devised, developed and personalised to our school community, having evolved from our values, vision and mission statement.
Our PE curriculum is underpinned by the national curriculum’s aims to ensure that all pupils:
- develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities;
- are physically active for sustained periods of time;
- engage in competitive sports and activities;
- lead healthy, active lives.
Intent
Physical Education arms our children with vital tools that enable them to become well-rounded, successful and healthy individuals. Physical Education explicitly teaches the necessary knowledge and skills for working with and relating to others, and provides the learning opportunities to develop these skills. It enables the development of leadership and teamwork and encourages students to transfer knowledge to other learning areas.
Our high-quality PE curriculum enables all students to enjoy and succeed in many kinds of physical activity. As a result the children will develop a wide range of skills and the ability to use tactics, strategies and compositional ideas to perform successfully. When they are performing, they think about what they are doing, they analyse the situation and make decisions. They also reflect on their own and others’ performances and find ways to improve upon them. As a result, they develop the confidence to take part in different physical activities and learn about the value of healthy and active lifestyles, thus making informed choices about lifelong physical activity.
PE helps children develop physically and socially. They overcome challenges, they demonstrate resilience, determination and they develop concepts of fairness and social responsibility. Through the range of experiences that PE offers, they learn how to be effective in competitive, creative and challenging situations.
Due to the locality of the school and local area, outdoor space is limited. Therefore, the school considers Physical Education to be a priority for the children of Windmill: we invest heavily in our resources and in having a full time specialist PE teacher. Additionally, the thread, ‘Healthy Lifestyles’, runs through our curriculum.
We aim for all Windmill athletes to:
- have positive attitudes towards, and foster an enjoyment of, being physically active;
- make informed choices about the role that physical activity and exercise has in maintaining physical and mental well-being;
- be resilient, ambitious and have courage to engage in competitive sports;
- be able to talk about, reflect and adapt tactics, compositions and performances;
- develop teamwork and social skills; developing leadership, communication and problem solving skills;
- develop sportsmanship: developing the concept of respect, fairness and social responsibility.
End of Year Curriculum Expectations (All, Most and Some)
Swimming
At Windmill, we recognise swimming as a life skill and see it necessary that children learn to swim and are able to perform safe self-rescue at an early age. We provide a summer term of swimming for Year 2 to start to build their confidence in the water and to teach them how to pull themselves out of water safely. We provide intensive swimming coaching in the autumn and spring terms for Year 4 and a summer refresher course for Year 6.
Competitions and Awards
Our PE curriculum, coupled with the children’s enthusiasm for sports, has meant we have achieved some great successes!
Our school basketball team has a long-standing reputation across the city, having won many tournaments. We also won the L.E.A.D athletics competition in 2019, along with coming second place in the Unite the Scene street dance competition with our talented group of dancers.
We are proud to have attained Gold in the School Games Mark in 2019. We were assessed in the sporting areas of: participation (number of pupils engaging in sports), competition (the number of different sports being played and competitions entered), workforce (number of pupils involved in sports leadership) and clubs (number of clubs held and local links to clubs). We were assessed as gold in all areas!
If you would like any further information on PE at Windmill, please contact the school and ask to speak to Andy Rose, our specialist PE teacher and subject leader.