
At Thornham St James, our PE curriculum aims to provide a holistic, well-rounded physical education that empowers children to master fundamental movements, develop personal fitness, and cultivate lifelong skills through a variety of activities. We prioritize not only physical development but also the social, moral, spiritual, and cultural growth of every child. By participating in individual, team-based, and cooperative activities, students will learn to apply both substantive (what) and disciplinary (how) knowledge across the PE curriculum, fostering resilience, teamwork, and a commitment to doing their best.
Curriculum Goals:
The PE curriculum at Thornham St James is designed to develop:
- Fundamental Movement Skills:
- Master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing, catching, and striking.
- Develop agility, balance, and coordination through a variety of activities such as athletics, gymnastics, and dance.
- Teamwork and Cooperation:
- Participate in team games including invasion games (handball, tag-rugby, basketball, netball), net and wall games (volleyball, badminton), and striking and fielding games (cricket).
- Develop simple tactics for attacking and defending, showing an understanding of teamwork and cooperation.
- Physical Fitness and Well-being:
- Engage in activities that enhance cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, and endurance.
- Understand the importance of staying active, healthy, and making positive lifestyle choices.
- Creative Expression and Performance:
- Explore movement and rhythm through dance, using creative expression to compose short dances and participate in performances.
- Develop control, coordination, and expressive movement in gymnastics, demonstrating balance and agility on different apparatus.
- Competitive Spirit and Personal Challenge:
- Develop resilience and perseverance in competitive sports, understanding the importance of fair play and respect for others.
- Take part in both cooperative and competitive games, learning to celebrate successes and use challenges as opportunities for growth.
PE Implementation Statement at Thornham St James
At Thornham St James, the PE curriculum is implemented through a structured, inclusive, and values-driven approach that ensures all pupils develop the physical, social, and cognitive skills needed to succeed. Our implementation is successful because of strong subject leadership, effective teaching practices, targeted interventions, and robust assessment strategies, all aligned with our Christian vision and school values.
1. National Curriculum Content:
Our PE curriculum is delivered through a subject-specific approach, ensuring that key physical skills such as agility, balance, coordination, and team-based strategies are taught explicitly. Each unit—whether it involves invasion games (like handball and rugby), net and wall games (volleyball, badminton), or personal fitness (athletics and gymnastics)—is scaffolded to build progressively, ensuring that pupils revisit and deepen their understanding of core skills throughout their time at Thornham St James.
Long-term curriculum maps, developed in collaboration with subject leaders, ensure that learning is sequenced across year groups. For instance:
- In Key Stage 1, students explore fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, and catching, and begin participating in simple team games.
- In Key Stage 2, students progress to more complex game strategies, refining their tactical understanding and personal fitness through activities such as dodgeball, basketball, and cricket.
This spiral curriculum model ensures that pupils build substantive (what) and disciplinary (how) knowledge across all PE units, with each year introducing new challenges that are carefully connected to previous learning, particularly in team games, where skills are transferable across sports.
2. Rosenshine’s Principles:
Rosenshine’s principles underpin our pedagogical approach to PE. Lessons are structured to ensure that cognitive load is managed, helping pupils to secure key skills and develop physical confidence:
- Flashback: Every PE lesson begins with a review of previously learned skills, such as throwing techniques or movement patterns. Retrieval practice is embedded through short warm-up tasks, mini-quizzes, or discussions that refresh pupils' memories of prior learning and prepare them for the new skills being introduced.
- Anchor: Key skills, such as how to effectively defend or attack in team games, are recapped briefly at the start of each lesson, ensuring pupils are anchored in prior knowledge before progressing.
- Modelled Practice: Teachers demonstrate techniques such as dribbling a ball in basketball or hitting a shuttle in badminton. This explicit modelling, combined with teacher commentary, allows students to visually and mentally process new skills. Clear, consistent instruction based on small-step learning is used to avoid overwhelming pupils, while pre-assessments identify misconceptions and allow for targeted interventions.
- Guided Practice: Through structured coaching, pupils practice skills with high success rates. Whether working on gymnastics routines or refining handball passing strategies, the teacher circulates, providing real-time feedback and re-modelling when necessary, ensuring all children feel supported.
- Independent Practice: As pupils gain confidence, they are encouraged to apply their skills independently, engaging in competitive games or personal challenges where they demonstrate mastery of the physical techniques taught. For example, after guided practice in a volleyball lesson, pupils may participate in a match where they are expected to apply their knowledge of positioning and ball control.
3. End Points of Learning:
At Thornham St James, end points serve as the foundation of both long-term planning and assessment practices in PE. These end points are clear, measurable, and focused on ensuring progression:
- Substantive Knowledge: Pupils will leave each year group with a solid grasp of key rules, techniques, and strategies for various physical activities. For instance, by the end of Year 2, children should understand the basics of defending in invasion games like tag rugby, while Year 6 students will have mastered more advanced tactics for games such as basketball or cricket.
- Disciplinary Knowledge: Alongside knowing the "what," pupils are taught "how" to execute skills with precision. This is seen in activities like gymnastics, where pupils not only learn key movements but also how to link them into sequences, demonstrating control and fluency.
End points guide the assessment process:
- Formative Assessment: Teachers constantly observe and assess during lessons, offering feedback to pupils to help improve technique and understanding. This might involve correcting posture during a gymnastics routine or providing immediate feedback during a basketball match.
- Summative Assessment: At the end of each unit, teachers assess pupils' ability to demonstrate the key skills and knowledge outlined in the curriculum. Pupils participate in final games, performances, or personal challenges that showcase their learning and allow teachers to evaluate their progress.
PE Impact Statement at Thornham St James
At Thornham St James, the impact of our PE curriculum is demonstrated through continuous formative and summative assessment processes that ensure all pupils make consistent progress in physical development, teamwork, and personal well-being. By aligning with our school values and educational philosophy, the PE program fosters the development of essential physical skills, a love for sport, and a deeper understanding of the importance of physical activity in leading healthy, balanced lives.
1. Progress in Physical Development and Skills Mastery
Our PE curriculum ensures that pupils progressively build and refine their physical skills, in line with the National Curriculum end points. From mastering fundamental movements like throwing, catching, running, and balancing, to applying these skills in team games and complex sports, pupils demonstrate increasing competence as they move through the school.
- Ongoing Formative Assessment: In every PE lesson, teachers assess pupils’ physical abilities through observation, practical performance, and targeted questioning. This continuous assessment informs immediate feedback and helps tailor each lesson to the needs of individuals or groups. Pupils regularly revisit key movements and techniques, ensuring a deep understanding and mastery before moving forward. This approach, supported by our pre-assessment quizzes, ensures all children develop foundational skills and tactics in sports like handball, rugby, and volleyball.
- Summative Evaluation: At the end of each PE unit, summative assessments—ranging from performance in team games to personal fitness achievements—help evaluate progress against established benchmarks. Pupils are assessed as either working towards or meeting the expected standard, which informs future lesson planning and interventions. Teachers also conduct post-assessment activities, measuring retention of key skills and tactical knowledge, ensuring that pupils’ learning is secure and long-lasting.
2. Holistic Development and Well-being
The impact of our PE curriculum extends beyond physical education, contributing to the social, emotional, and mental well-being of our pupils. By promoting teamwork, perseverance, and respect, our PE lessons help pupils develop essential life skills.
- Character Building through PE: Pupils gain confidence as they engage in various physical challenges, and our focus on sportsmanship fosters respect and empathy. Through participation in team games like basketball, netball, and rugby, children learn the importance of collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership—qualities that support both their personal and academic growth.
- Health and Well-being: Our curriculum instills a love for physical activity, reinforcing the importance of leading an active lifestyle. By regularly engaging in structured physical activity, pupils become more aware of the connection between exercise, physical fitness, and mental well-being, which equips them to make healthy lifestyle choices beyond school.
3. Effective Feedback and Intervention
Assessment drives instruction in PE, just as in all subjects at Thornham St James. Through continuous formative assessment, teachers identify pupils needing additional support or challenge, ensuring every child receives the feedback necessary for their individual progress.
- Timely Interventions: Immediate feedback is given during lessons to correct misconceptions and refine skills. Additionally, data from formative assessments inform short-term planning, allowing teachers to provide timely interventions to pupils who may need further practice or support. Whether it’s helping a child refine their passing technique in football or building coordination in gymnastics, interventions are designed to meet each pupil's unique needs.
- Adapting Instruction for Inclusion: Through careful monitoring and differentiation, all children, including those with special educational needs or disabilities, can fully participate in PE. Lessons are adapted to ensure inclusivity, and interventions are regularly reviewed to maintain the effectiveness of our support strategies.
4. Progress Reviews and Curriculum Adjustments
At Thornham St. James, we are committed to ensuring that our curriculum effectively embeds learning in pupils’ long-term memory while also promoting excellence in outcomes. To assess the impact of our curriculum, we employ a comprehensive approach that utilises four key tools:
Classroom Check-ins: These evaluations focus on subject knowledge, clarity of explanations, high expectations, opportunities for learning, pupil responses, participation, and teacher-student relationships. This allows us to assess how well pupils are engaging with the content and applying their knowledge.
Pupil Book Looks and Pupil Voice : These studies involve dialogues with pupils and reviewing their workbooks to evaluate curriculum structures, teaching methods, participation, and responses. This dialogic model helps us gauge whether pupils are knowing more, remembering more, and able to do more as a result of their learning experiences.
Professional Growth Models: We prioritise continuous improvement in staff subject knowledge and evidence-informed teaching practices, including retrieval practice, spaced learning, interleaving, and explicit instruction techniques. This ensures that all teachers are equipped to support pupil learning effectively.
Assessment and Achievement: We articulate learning outcomes through tasks and tests, evaluating both understanding and areas for improvement. This information informs our next steps, guiding us in adjusting teaching to meet the needs of all pupils.
In conducting these evaluations, we ask critical questions such as:
How well do pupils remember the content that they have been taught?
Do pupil discussions demonstrate progress and attainment?
Can pupils apply their learning in more sophisticated contexts, showing that knowledge has ‘travelled’ with them?
Conclusion
The impact of our PE curriculum at Thornham St James is seen in the physical, social, and emotional development of our pupils. Through continuous assessment, targeted interventions, and a focus on inclusivity, we ensure every child reaches their full potential in physical education. Pupils leave our school equipped with the skills, knowledge, and values necessary to succeed in sports, lead healthy lifestyles, and make positive contributions to society. The impact of our PE program is a lasting one, fostering a love for physical activity and reinforcing our school’s mission to help pupils be the best they can be in all areas of their lives.
PE Whole School Journey
PE Curriculm Progression
PE Curriculum Key End Points