curriculum – Go Well

Boosting the quality of PE in your school

Ofsted’s latest report on the quality of PE in primary and secondary schools recognised the importance of PE for children in helping them to build a healthy, active lifestyle. However, it concluded that ‘many schools are failing to meet the breadth and depth of the national curriculum’ and that only a small number of schools have a clearly defined and broad PE curriculum.

What does this mean?

In its research, Ofsted found that schools were focused on providing activities and sports rather than looking at how they could develop the skills pupils need over time to achieve the ambitious goals of the National Curriculum.

If a school has a strong focus on a specific activity area or sport, its pupils are potentially missing out on opportunities to practise and refine their skills and build their competence and confidence, before moving on to more complex skills. It also highlighted that a large number of teachers were unable to identify these gaps and adapt content to help children to embed knowledge and competence.

Why is it important to have a clearly defined and broad PE curriculum?

By setting a clear objective, considering the needs and abilities of the class then choosing the most appropriate activities and sports, you can ensure all pupils are supported, have a positive experience of PE and the opportunity to achieve their goals.

Putting in a plan where specific sports and activities work together and follow on from each other will also help your pupils to progress and develop their skills, understanding and experience as they move through the curriculum. Sequenced curriculums with clear intent are key.

What can you do to increase the breadth and depth of PE in your school?

Start off with reviewing your PE curriculum. Is it clear, comprehensive and well-defined? Does it meet the needs of the national curriculum? Is it well sequenced across a key stage? Does it allow the children to be continually developing key skills?

What is your plan for introducing different activities and sports? How will you do this and when? Is there a planned sequence that allows for development and progression as well as enabling pupils to experience different sports so they can find something they enjoy and do well in?

Are you providing opportunities for pupils to learn about the importance of being active and the wider benefits of PE?

You can make a start on developing PE in your school by working your way through these questions. However, given lack of confidence was cited as a reason why many schools weren’t achieving their potential when it came to PE, bringing in some external support could help to kick start the process.

We can help

Trainee teachers receive just six hours of PE training. Additional professional development is therefore essential to ensuring pupils get to experience and enjoy high quality PE in your school.

This is where Go Well can help. Gareth and Annalisa, our curriculum experts work with schools to help PE leads to develop a well-constructed, needs-driven curriculum that matches the aims of the national curriculum and supports pupils to lead healthy active lives.

We can audit your provision, work with you to develop a strategic plan, advise on implementation, look at your action planning and develop assessment opportunities. These sessions can be 1-2-1 or with small groups.

It is our mission to inspire more children to lead active, healthy lives. We would be delighted to work with you to develop and enhance PE in your schools. Get in touch to talk about how we can help you move PE in your school forward.

Think back to 2012; what comes to mind? The chances are it’s the London Olympics. The last time we had held the Games before this was in 1948. It really was something to celebrate – remember Super Saturday? It seemed that the whole country had gone sport crazy.

Conversely, 2012 is also the year that funding for school PE was slashed. Worried about the future of PE and the pressures teachers were facing, we set up a social enterprise to work with schools to help inspire children and to build healthy active futures.

It was a really tricky time, but we survived. In fact, our service grew and we now work with schools across England, helping to engage thousands of pupils in sport and physical activity every year.

Fast forward ten years; we’re celebrating our 10th birthday; the House of Lords has recommended that PE becomes a core subject in its National Plan for Sport and Recreation and former children’s minister, Edward Timpson has led a Westminster Hall debate on the subject.

How times have changed!

Physical education is just as important as any other school subject

We firmly believe that PE should have the same status in schools as English, Maths and Science. Why?

High-quality PE is more than ‘just playing games or running around’. It impacts on a child’s physical, moral, social, emotional, cultural and intellectual development. While it can be a stress-reliever and provide respite from classroom-based learning, it also provides pupils with meaningful learning experiences.

PE squeezed from the curriculum

Department for Education guidance recommends that schools provide pupils with a minimum of two hours PE per week. However, as this is only a recommendation. It is up to schools to determine how much time should be spent teaching PE. This means we often see PE being squeezed from the curriculum. Pressures on schools to hit academic targets means that PE can be marginalised for additional Maths and English support and PE space is often compromised and made inaccessible for school plays, exams etc.

The many benefits of high-quality PE

Elevating PE to core subject status would increase appreciation of the subject, ensuring it is valued as much as reading, writing and maths. Another benefit from regular high-quality PE lessons is that it helps children to develop an interest in being active, which is essential for ensuring long-term active lifestyles, which in turn will reduce the burden on the NHS.

Alongside these, there is evidence that regular physical activity raises academic performance as following a bout of physical activity you are more alert and open to learning new things, problem solving and retaining information.

Looking to the future

We are delighted to be celebrating our 10th birthday and are so thankful to all the schools we have worked with over the past decade for putting their trust in us. While no one can predict the future, we are hopeful that the importance of PE and the need to help children to build healthy active futures will continue to grow.

One thing we can say for certain is that we will remain committed to creating and delivering innovative educational programmes that improve wellness and inspire children to be more active more often.

What does this mean?

Why is it important to have a clearly defined and broad PE curriculum?

What can you do to increase the breadth and depth of PE in your school?

We can help

Physical education is just as important as any other school subject

PE squeezed from the curriculum

The many benefits of high-quality PE

Looking to the future

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