PE

PE AND SPORTS

INTENT

At St Mark's, our Physical Education curriculum is designed around our four core curriculum drivers. We believe PE is fundamental to developing pupils' physical literacy and overall wellbeing. Our curriculum provides engaging, high-quality instruction that inspires all pupils to progress confidently in a supportive yet challenging environment. Through carefully structured and adaptive teaching, children develop essential movement skills and body management capabilities while growing in confidence and competence. All of this is experienced in a safe and supportive environment.

Our partnership with Roedean provides access to their outstanding swimming facilities, enabling us to deliver successful swimming lessons to Years 4 and 6 students throughout the academic year, ensuring water safety and confidence. We actively participate in different sports events such as, The School Games, offering numerous inter-school competitive opportunities across sports like athletics, gymnastics, cricket, and tennis, as shown in our curriculum map.

IMPLEMENTATION

 Our varied PE curriculum follows the GetSet4PE scheme, providing carefully sequenced learning that ensures consistent skill progression and knowledge retention. Each unit, includes clear learning objectives, success criteria, and vocabulary progression, enabling teachers to implement adaptive teaching strategies that support all learners.

The curriculum map demonstrates our systematic approach:

• EYFS focuses on fundamental movement skills through introduction to PE, dance, gymnastics, and basic games.
• Key Stage 1 (Years 1-2) builds physical literacy through fundamentals, dance, gymnastics, and introduction to sport-specific skills like invasion games and striking/fielding.
• Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6) develops more advanced skills across athletics, gymnastics, invasion games (basketball, handball), net games (tennis, badminton), and striking games (cricket).

Each year group receives instruction in gymnastics, ensuring continuous development of core movement skills. The curriculum also includes specific units on fitness, outdoor adventurous activities (OAA), and yoga, providing a well-rounded physical education experience.

IMPACT

Children will leave St Mark's school as skilful, intelligent learners who will demonstrate:

• Competence across a broad range of physical activities, from fundamental movement skills to sport-specific techniques.
• The ability to apply tactical understanding and compositional ideas in various sporting contexts.
• Leadership skills and initiative in physical activities.
• Understanding of healthy, active lifestyle choices.
• Positive attitudes toward physical activity and sports, including values of fairness and respect.
• The ability to set personal targets and engage in healthy competition.

Our PE curriculum delivery is supported by:

• Regular assessment against progression map objectives
• Opportunities for competitive sports participation
• Clear skill progression from Reception through Year 6

Swimming attainment

We are required to publish the percentage of pupils within our Year 6 cohort who met the National Curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety.  Full details can be seen on our Sports Premium report.