Physical Education

Subject Statement

The importance of Physical Education

“In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these means, man can attain perfection.” – Plato

Gone are the days in which Sport and Physical Education were seen as just going outside to kick a Football around with some friends. Sport and Physical Education includes a myriad of other subjects within it such as Science, Psychology and Sociology. Sport and Physical Education is much more than that in this day and age and this is particularly true with Sport and Physical Education at St Peter’s.

Sport and Physical Education has many areas that make it whole. For instance, elite sport is dominated by Science. Science is used to understand the body and how it reacts to exercise and exertion. Science is used to record and evaluate this data. Science is also used to research and build top quality sports facilities and equipment. In Psychology, Sport and Physical Education relies on coping mechanisms for stressful events in sports such as penalty shoot outs in Football. Psychology also extends to our individual differences and how these make us successful sports performers. For English and Sport and Physical Education the link is between the ways in which we can communicate our feelings about a particular topic such as role models in sport being positive or negative or how we are planning to teach a coaching session to a group of year 7 students.

We also offer a Sports Leaders qualification for students to allow them to develop as young leaders and to support the school in the sports events we run.

Only 45% of young people are meeting the Chief Medical Officer guidelines of taking part in sport and physical activity for an average of 60 minutes or more every day (Sport England, 2021). In St Peter’s, the PE department offer at least 60 minutes of sport every day.  Also, we regularly take part in the Living Sport Active Lives survey which informs us of the exercise habits of the students so we can tailor the activities we use to teach the national curriculum for PE.

At Key Stage 3 students have the opportunity to use their practical skills to develop as young sportsmen and women. Students use a range of tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in activities such as netball, rugby and hockey. They are taught skills to develop their technique and improve performance in activities such as athletics, dance and gymnastics. Students are encouraged to be courageous in their approach to outdoor and adventurous activities such as orienteering and capture the flag. They strive to be their best in these activities and we constantly offer sports and activities through sports clubs before, during and after school. We also have links with local sports clubs to further the sporting experience.

At Key Stage 4 students develop their tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in team sports such as football, hockey and netball. They further develop their technique and performance in trampolining and athletics. Students are challenged to develop their skills in a range of outdoor and adventurous activities such as orienteering and hill walking. They also evaluate their performances compared to previous ones and aim to demonstrate improvement. Further to this, we continue to provide opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity before, during and after school. Examples of school clubs we offer are rugby, football, cricket, netball, hockey and rounders plus other clubs such as tennis, dance and fitness. We have created links with Huntingdon rugby club, Northampton Saints rugby club and Huntingdon tennis club.

Students who wish to take their experience of Sport and Physical Education further in Key Stage 5 have the option to take Sport and Physical Activity Level 3 and/or A Level PE. Each suited to different types of learner.

This broad and inclusive offer from Key stage 3 to Key Stage 5 allows the students at St Peter’s to flourish in the Sport and Physical Education setting.

Core PE is taught in mixed sex classes to allow students to experience PE with different genders.

Once students opt to choose the Sports option in Year 10, classes are taught in mixed gender classes for the majority of activities. However, if the PE members of staff feel there is a disadvantage to anyone because of the activity/physical development/experience in the activity then single sex classes may be created.

Sport and Physical Education can take you many places such as a Sports Reporter, a Sports Professional, Physiotherapist, Kit Man, PE teacher, Coach, Army, Police, Sports Psychologist, Sports Business and many more. All of these routes are achievable by achieving in PE at each Key Stage.