Mereside Academy

Physical Education and

Outdoor Education

Intent

At Mereside CE Primary Academy, we aim to provide a high-quality and spiritual physical education that engages and excites all children across the school and opens their minds to the importance of being physically active, not only in school, but also in the wider community.

All lessons are to be active and absorbent, as well as adapted to all needs of participants. In PE lessons, we highlight successes; show love and value to pupils’ efforts throughout, and aim to aspire all children to be athletes by opening them up to a broad curriculum covering a range of sports which they can build on skills and use outside of school, with local clubs, and when they leave primary education.

Our physical education enables children to build on motor skills going from basic movements, such as running, jumping and throwing, all the way to developing simple tactics for attacking and defending. We provide extra-curricular opportunities such as clubs and the chance to represent the school at sport events where we encourage pupils to enjoy themselves and to show the spirit of Mereside throughout.

Outdoor Education

“The best classroom and the widest cupboard is

roofed only by the sky.”

Margaret McMillan

Intent

We want our children to participate in a range of challenging, enjoyable, progressive and creative outdoor learning experiences; the possibilities are endless. Developing a love of learning as in our school motto ‘Love to learn and learn to love’ and contributing to a healthy body and healthy mind for all.

 The curriculum is embedded with regular outdoor experiences. Through these children develop a love and respect for their local and wider environment and become confident individuals, effective contributors, citizens and successful learners. We want our children to aspire to become guardians of our natural world; developing a care and love of their local environments and upholding our Christian values.

Implementation

At Mereside we aim to embed Outdoor education, experiences and learning through all areas of the curriculum, so outdoor education is truly cross curricular.

We use forest school as one of these means to provide our children with a wide range of skills and opportunities in an outdoor setting. Forest school provides opportunities for learning that mightn’t be available in the classroom through social development and risk taking and management of those risks.

At Mereside we are blessed with a wide and diverse range of outdoor spaces, forest school sites, garden allotment, play trails and fields.

As a team Staff we are currently working on developing curriculum plans and maps. Once this is finalised we will be able to identify opportunities to embed outdoor education in all aspects of the curriculum.

Implementation 

Curriculum planning based on National Curriculum for PE (2014) requirements

Key stage 1

Pupils should develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others. They should be able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

Pupils should be taught to:

• master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
• participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
• perform dances using simple movement patterns.

Key stage 2

Curriculum planning based on National Curriculum for PE (2014) requirements

Key stage 1

Pupils should develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others. They should be able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

Pupils should be taught to:

• master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
• participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
• perform dances using simple movement patterns.

Key stage 2

Pupils should continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement. They should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. They should develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.

Pupils should be taught to:

• use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
• play competitive games, modified where appropriate [for example, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, rounders and tennis], and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
• develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance [for example, through athletics and gymnastics]
• perform dances using a range of movement patterns
• take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
• Compare their performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best.

Swimming and water safety

All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.

In particular, pupils should be taught to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.