Here at Esh Winning, PE is taught as a basis for lifelong learning. The children have access to a wide range of sports and activities in the belief that if taught well and the children are allowed to succeed, then they will continue to have a physically active life.
The PE Whole School Initiatives section provides further information of the wider ways in which Esh Winning Primary School provides opportunities to engage with and deepen learning in PE.
It is our intent at Esh Winning to teach children life skills that will positively impact on their future. We aim to deliver high-quality teaching and learning opportunities that inspire all children to succeed in physical activities. We want to teach children how to co-operate and collaborate with others, as part of a team, understanding fairness and equity of play to embed life-long values. We recognise the value of physical education and we fully adhere to the aims of the national curriculum for physical education to ensure that all children: PE in the Early Years As part of the EYFS statutory framework pupils are taught: Physical development - involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food. Moving and handling: children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively. Health and self-care: children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. Key Stage 1 and 2 Pupils at Esh Winning Primary School participate in twice weekly high quality PE and sporting activities. At least one of these sessions is taken by professional coaches from outside the school. Our PE programme incorporates a variety of sports to ensure all children develop the confidence, tolerance and the appreciation of their own and others’ strengths and weaknesses. We provide opportunities for all children to engage in extra-curricular activities before, during and after school, in addition to competitive sporting events. This is an inclusive approach which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also well-being. As well as these PE lessons, the children also take part in our ‘Daily Mile’. This involves the class walking, jogging or running a number of laps around our grounds at some point during the day at the teacher’s discretion. We also have an extensive OPAL provision, allowing the children the opportunity to learn through play. Our grounds also allow us to make use of the outdoors whenever possible, whether through PE lessons or other areas of the curriculum. The curriculum lead attends PE Subject Leader meetings to stay abreast of regional and national good practice. This information is shared through staff meetings and supporting documents. It is our aim that all children will achieve age related expectations in PE and perhaps more importantly children will enjoy sport and will seek additional extra-curricular activities both in school and externally. Our participation levels in PE will be 100% In all classes children have a wide range of physical ability. Whilst recognising this fact, we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child and in doing so raise pupil’s health (considering childhood obesity) and fitness levels, improve skills and develop pupil’s resilience, teamwork and perseverance (school values). The use of assessment, questionnaires and surveys (pupils and staff) and by talking to children the quality of lessons and confidence in the teaching of PE improves and as a result the enjoyment and positive outcomes increases. At Esh Winning, we work closely with the Durham and Chester le Street School Sports Partnership, who provide quality coaching sessions to our children throughout the year. Their coaches work alongside our teaching staff to ensure the quality delivery of a range of sports and to enable our teaching staff to be confident to deliver these sessions going forward. As part of our partnership, we have access to many different events throughout the year that all children from Early Years to Year 6 can attend. These events have included: gymnastics carousels, cricket and tennis festivals, football league competitions, all delivered at other sites, as well as fun runs and taster sessions delivered at our school. We aim to provide a variety of after school clubs to give our children further opportunities to participate in physical activity. These have included multi-sports, fitness, dodgeball, among others, all provided by fully qualified coaches. There are also weekly football training sessions, ran by members of staff within school. Each year at Esh Winning, we take part in the Active 30 initiative. This is a scheme in which we pledge for each pupil to be active each day for a minimum of 30 minutes and if we achieve this we receive a certificate. We achieved this in the last school year and are well on target to achieve this again. In order to help us hit our 30 minutes of activity every day, our school provides plenty of opportunities including our OPAL resources for break and lunch times, a Daily Mile course that classes often use at various times throughout the day, alongside our two sessions of PE each week and access to various after school clubs. Last year we held our first Children's Cancer Run, a whole school fun run in which we aimed to raise money for Children's cancer charities. This proved extremely successful, and great fun, so we are holding this event again this year on 24th June.
