Physical Education

At Portway we have made the physical education (PE) curriculum as varied as possible so that all children experience a range of sports and physical skills. Every term or half term the focus of PE is different allowing children to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. Throughout the PE curriculum at Portway, children will learn and develop important physical skills, such as hand-eye coordination, body movement control, handling and controlling different sporting equipment, teamwork and fair play.Ā  The PE curriculum has been carefully planned specifically to each year group so that, as the children move through the school, their skills are extended and developed.

Our PE Curriculum develops essential characteristics of athletes:

  • The ability to acquire new knowledge and skills exceptionally well and develop an in-depth understanding of PE.
  • The willingness to practise skills in a wide range of different activities and situations, alone, in small groups and in teams and to apply these skills in chosen activities to achieve exceptionally high levels of performance.
  • High levels of physical fitness.
  • A healthy lifestyle, achieved by eating sensibly, avoiding smoking, drugs and alcohol and exercising regularly.
  • The ability to remain physically active for sustained periods of time and an understanding of the importance of this in promoting long-term health and well-being.
  • The ability to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders, organising and officiating, and evaluating what needs to be done to improve, and motivating and instilling excellent sporting attitudes in others.
  • Exceptional levels of originality, imagination and creativity in their techniques, tactics and choreography, knowledge of how to improve their own and othersā€™ performance and the ability to work independently for extended periods of time without the need of guidance or support.
  • A keen interest in PE. A willingness to participate eagerly in every lesson, highly positive attitudes and the ability to make informed choices about engaging fully in extra-curricular sport.
  • The ability to swim at least 25 metres before the end of Year 6 and knowledge of how to remain safe in and around water.

Our physical education unit coverage provides detailed information as to how we teach all elements of the curriculum across all year groups at our school.

How is PE taught at Portway?

The PE curriculum is designed to help children form a PE scheme within their long-term memories.

Schema theory states that all knowledge is organised into units. A mental model is, therefore, a conceptual system for understanding knowledge.

Our PE mental model is a way of organising PEĀ  substantive and disciplinary knowledge in a meaningful way; it is an appreciation of how facts are connected and the ways in which they are connected.Ā  It is distinct from information, which is just isolated facts that have no organisational basis or links.

Big Ideas help form the basis of the mental model. Big Ideas are key concepts that underpin the subject. There are two Big Ideas in PE:

  • Developing Practical Skills (Learning a range of physical movements and sporting techniques)
  • Application (Using the practical skills in a variety of ways in a variety of sporting endeavours)

Each Big Idea has knowledge strands which help to strengthen the mental model. Learning knowledge in each of the strands allows pupils to express and demonstrate their understanding of the Big Idea,Ā  which gradually develops as pupils return to them over and over again.