PE at Primrose Hill

Curriculum Intent

At Primrose Hill, we intend for all of our pupils to develop a love of Physical Education (PE) which will lead to a lifelong interest in physical activity and recognise its impact on their mental health and wellbeing. We have designed a curriculum that provides children across school with positive physical/sporting experiences to raise children’s sporting spirit. 

The Substantive knowledge strands that underpin our ambitious curriculum are;

• Being able to perform specific actions, balances and movements in line with year group expectations
• Running, jumping, throwing and catching
• Tactics within a team game e.g. strategies for attacking and defending
• Being able to swim confidently and competently over 25 metres

Children are taught about the different ways in which they can use their body, equipment and apparatus safely yet imaginatively to achieve their personal goals. We aim to do this by providing a clear progressive curriculum which has been designed to ensure that children begin their learning journey with the building blocks of fundamental movement skills such as agility, balance and coordination. Having a good understanding of fundamental skills then enables the children to apply these in a range of activities. Through the teaching of Multi Skills, children are introduced to new strategies and techniques such as throwing, catching, attacking and intercepting with the understanding that all of these are transferable skills and will support them in a range of game situations. All children are encouraged to and have the opportunity to enjoy being physically active, maintain a healthy lifestyle and use the medium of sport, increase their self-esteem. Clear links are made during lessons in PE as well as PSHE and Science to the positives of increased physical activity on their mental health and promote the idea that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. We aspire for children to adopt a positive mind-set and believe that anything can be achieved with determination and resilience.

In addition to the children developing their strength, mobility and physical endurance, opportunities are planned for children to also develop their social skills, especially their ability to work as part of a team. This is through PE lessons as well as opportunities such as intra and inter school competitions.

At Primrose Hill, we have links with many experts who provide additional teaching/coaching to children across school such as ACES, Leeds Rhinos Foundation, Skipping Schools and Cycle North to name just a few.

As a school, we want to provide our children with all the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to rise to challenges they face through their sporting lives and have the confidence to perform whether that is a solo gymnastic routine or part of a team, as well as being proud of their achievements.

Owlcotes Elements

A Healthy Mind and Body

During their time at Primrose Hill, pupils are offered a range of opportunities to foster a love of sport, while understanding the benefits this physical activity has on maintaining a healthy mind.

Our youngest children will take part in learning to ride a bike as part of Balanceability and learning Yoga. Y4 pupils will attend a live sporting event and our oldest children take on the challenge of completing Junior Warrior.

A Sense of Adventure

 We want to instil a sense of adventure in all of our children so we support them through this process from reception by going to a local park, then in Y1 children visit Pudsey park. As part of OAA; Y3 children visit the climbing depot; Y4 experience a wide range of outdoor pursuits activities at West Leeds Activity Centre; Y5 focus on building their teamwork skills, communication and resilience at Nell Bank; and this all builds towards a 2 night residential in Y6 to Robinwood. 

Sporting Spirit

Throughout school, there are many opportunities for children of all year groups to take part in a range of sporting events through the Pudsey Cluster Events as well as those provided through Leeds Well Schools Partnership.

We also hold the Owlcotes Cup which allows each year group from 1-6 to compete in events against other children from their year group in the MAT.

In addition to these events, Y2 and Y4 also work with Skipping Schools and then take part in skipping festivals.

Finally, children in Y6 take part in Bikeability training which they can then put into practise at the end of the year in our Saltaire Cycle.

We are very proud to have been awarded with

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward and recognise school’s engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

We are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our events possible. We are committed to using the School Games to try and engage those young people who haven’t previously been active or represented our school and to try and ensure that all our students have a positive experience and want to try out new activities beyond school too in our community.

We believe in the power of physical activity and school sport as a school and give opportunities to those young people that need it most either as a participant, leader, official or volunteer. As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas linked to the five School Games outcomes and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.