Intent
At Osmotherley Primary School we believe that PE, physical activity & school sport (PESSPA) is a vital part of school life and ultimately our children’s future well-being. It is therefore our intent to provide an inclusive, broad and balanced PE curriculum that ensures ALL children will benefit, whether through enhancing existing skills, learning new skills or being introduced to new sports, clubs, teams and organisations.
It is our intent to ensure children understand the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle and to equip them with the tools to do so through health and well being education. Children must understand how to take care of themselves both physically and mentally in order to be successful as adults.
Beyond merely a subject, we believe that participating in physical activity and sporting activity is a key element of developing a school in which pupils are proud of the community in which they belong. Therefore, great emphasis is placed upon additional sporting opportunities beyond the lesson within after school clubs. As a small school, we know the importance of attending cluster inter-school competitions and festivals and we encourage children to attend the local clubs within the school’s geographical area.
Each year group, across all key stages, will receive a minimum of 2 hours of PE each week with additional sporting clubs run after school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays. Sports coaches, together with the PE coordinator, help to coordinate the Playground Leaders and Sports Leaders - pupils who provide additional sporting opportunities on the playgrounds each day. Children will have the opportunities to participate in a wide range of competitions through inter-house competitions within the school, inter-school competition through the school sports partnership and other opportunities.
Swimming is taught in addition to this in KS2 (Years 3, 4, 5 and 6), during the summer term at the pool at Stokesley Leisure Centre, in order to meet and, wherever possible, to exceed the requirements for swimming as set out in national curriculum PE 2014 (namely to achieve the distance of 25m, effect a safe self-rescue and to use recognised strokes). We believe that swimming is an important life skill and a way for children to engage in a broad range of water based physical activities throughout their lives. It is our intent that all pupils leave our school able to swim the minimum standards set out.