Physical Education

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

“An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.”
– Czech Olympian Emil Zatopek

Our record-breaking Relay team!

2025 KS2 Inter-school athletics.

What Will Children Learn?

At Radwinter CofE Primary School, we believe that Physical Education (PE) is a vital avenue for our children to grow and learn together, embracing life in all its fullness. Our PE curriculum provides diverse opportunities for children to engage in a wide range of activities that enhance their technical sporting skills, promote healthy lifestyles, and foster mental wellbeing.

PE serves as a platform for instilling resilience, a strong work ethic, communication, and teamwork skills, ensuring our children are equipped and confident in various aspects of life. We are dedicated to embedding values such as fairness, respect, and forgiveness into the development of our young sportspersons.

We offer a high-quality PE curriculum that emphasises skill development before applying these skills in various game situations. We recognise the importance of broadening our children's horizons regarding the sports available to them and helping them understand that skills are transferable across disciplines.

Through our PE curriculum, we nurture a passion for sports while helping children develop the necessary skills and knowledge to excel. Our children will:

• Recognise and value the importance of exercise for their physical and mental health.
• Feel enthusiastic and excited about participating in different sporting activities.
• Take pride in representing their house or school.
• Commit to developing and perfecting their skill techniques.
• Believe in their ability to better themselves as athletes through hard work and resilience.
• Display good strength, coordination, and flexibility.

Sports Ambassadors

In Year 6, pupils are given the opportunity to be ‘Sports Ambassadors’. A sports ambassador is a student leader who promotes physical activity and healthy lifestyles within the school community. They encourage peers to participate in sports, lead by example, and help organise events and activities. This role reflects the skills and values learned through the PE curriculum, such as teamwork, leadership, and respect. By embodying these principles, sports ambassadors inspire their classmates to engage in physical activities, fostering a culture of health and fitness within the school.

How Will Children Be Taught?

At Radwinter CofE Primary School, our children exceed the DfE-recommended 90 minutes of exercise per week. They engage in two PE lessons weekly, active playtimes, and additional movement breaks such as the ‘Daily run’.

PE lessons

In EYFS and KS1, one of those lessons each week is Forest School. Forest School complements our PE curriculum bypromoting outdoor learning, encouraging physical activity, and fostering teamwork. Through engaging in nature-based activities, children develop essential skills such as resilience, problem-solving, and communication, while also enhancing their physical fitness and appreciation for the environment, aligning with our vision of holistic development.

We prioritise a skills-based curriculum that empowers children to apply their techniques across various sports and life skills. Throughout the year, pupils develop their fundamental movement skills (through dance, gymnastics and athletics), game skills and sense (through striking and fielding games, net/wall games and invasion games) and their outdoor and adventurous activity skills (through orienteering, problem-solving, team building, sports leadership and forest school). Alongside developing skills, pupils also develop knowledge about ‘sport for life’ thinking about keeping healthy, evaluating performances, striving for personal bests, understanding the psychological benefits of sports (particularly team sports) and understanding the importance of fairness and honesty in sports.  

In KS1 and KS2, pupils follow a 2-year spiral curriculum which aims to spend longer developing specific skills whilst applying them to different sports. For example, pupils might be developing their attacking and defending skills for a half term but apply these in multiple sports such as basketball and dodgeball.

Our KS2 pupils participate in swimming lessons at a local pool. These are led by trained swim instructors who assess the children regularly against the end of key stage criteria. Children continue to receive lessons until they have met the criteria as we believe swimming is a crucial life skill that all pupils should leave school having achieved.

PE throughout the day

Physical activity is championed throughout the day with initiatives like the Daily Run, a Sports Champion member of staff leading sports clubs every day at lunch time, an activity hour after school every day, Rise and Shine breakfast club having outdoor playtime and movement breaks.  

To support the development of fine and gross motor skills, as well as social and emotional needs, we run a Gym Trail club in the mornings, providing an exciting and supportive environment for purposeful skill development.

Our PE environment

Our school environment is designed to enable and encourage physical activity in a wide range of ways: a tyre park, table tennis table, Forest School environment, interactive playground markings, orienteering posts, large field with running track and sports pitch.  

We promote healthy lifestyles by encouraging pupils towalk, scoot, cycle or ‘park and stride’ to school wherever possible.

Extra-curricular sports

In addition to daily activities, our pupils have numerous opportunities to represent their house or school in competitive sports. This competitive environment teaches pupils the value of hard work, commitment, and determination, while also fostering encouragement, graciousness in winning and losing, and performance under pressure. We participate in various competitions organised through our school’s partnerships and host our own events, including visits from athletes, sponsored events, and house competitions.

We also offer a range of extra-curricular sports clubs led either by external agencies or our own staff: dodgeball, gymnastics, football, laser tag, netball/basketball. 

Our 2-year curriculum also complements the extra-curricular competition schedule (below) which has been designed such that pupils attend a wider range of events bi-annually in line with the units of work they are currently engaged with so that the development and application of their skills is purposeful.