Intent

PE is highly valued at Ightham Primary. It is valued not just for the clearly defined skills and knowledge that it can teach as prescribed in the National Curriculum. It is valued also for the softer, less clearly defined but enormously important skills that it can teach about perseverance, determination, self-reliance, resilience and responsibility. Added to all of these skills is the fact that an enthusiasm for sport and PE will contribute to a healthy and active lifestyle. 

PE at Ightham has three chief goals:

• The first goal is to provide a curriculum which will deliver the knowledge and skills stipulated by the National Curriculum. We teach each skill repeatedly throughout children’s time at our school and using difference activities as vehicles to teach these skills. We pitch lessons in such a way as they are demanding for the year group but differentiated to accommodate all abilities and disabilities.
• The second goal is to give children the opportunity to face and embrace challenge without reluctance or hesitation. We aim for children to experience adversity both as individuals and as part of a team and teach children the skills of tenacity, team work and self-reliance required to overcome. 
• The third goal is to give children a daily opportunity to be active and out of breath. We aim to provide for children an experience of a range of physical activities, far beyond those suggested by the national curriculum, to help them to find a physical activity that they can be enthusiastic about and pursue outside school.  

Implementation

Teaching and learning is based on Rosenshine’s principles. It is coherently planned and sequenced through cumulatively sufficient skills for future learning. 

I do, we do, you do at Ightham Primary

Teachers continually assess through the lesson to ascertain children’s skill base and are prepared to move back a stage if required. We do can be extended for some or all of the children, if felt necessary. The teacher would not move onto ‘you do’ until the children are ready. 

P.E. is taught through a blocked approach, allowing the children to apply their skills to a range of sports. 

Swimming: 

Swimming is taught in Years 1 to 6. Across the year, each year group has a block of swimming for 5 weeks.

• These will focus on teaching children to:
• Swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres.
• Use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke].
• Perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

At the end of the academic year 2024/25, 97% of children in Year 6 were able to achieve these targets.