The P.E. Curriculum

at St Robert Bellarmine

“We are God’s work of art”

At St Robert Bellarmine, through a high-quality P. E. education, we aim to inspire a love of P.E. in our children and an understanding of how P.E. contributes to the culture, creativity and richness of societies all over the world. It is designed to engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and experiences to become physically confident in a way which supports their health, mental health and fitness. Our intention is to give pupils every opportunity to develop their ability, nurture their talent and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learn about sport and sports people across cultures and through history. As they progress through school, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of P.E.

We will assure that the National Curriculum for Physical Education is met by ensuring that all of our pupils experience a wide breadth of study that includes: taking inspiration; the generating and developing of ideas along with application and mastering of techniques.

Our Intended Physical Education Curriculum

We aim for the P.E.  curriculum content to be remembered in the long term as our basic principles are that learning only takes place if there is a change in the long-term memory.

The ‘key knowledge’ that we want our pupils to know and remember forms the basis of our long-term planning for progression. This includes the ‘substantive concepts’ of: motor competence, rules, strategies and tactics and healthy participation. These concepts are integrated in a spiral curriculum so that the children revisit them in different contexts deepening their knowledge and understanding of them in each year group as they progress through school. And they are taught through the techniques of: developing competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities, being physically active for sustained periods of time, engaging in competitive sports and activities and leading healthy and active lives.

Curriculum breadth (Get Set 4 P.E. scheme) for physical education outlines the core knowledge for each topic around which teachers have developed a coherent and deliberately sequenced curriculum to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge and understanding by building upon prior knowledge.

Curriculum depth in physical education allows for children to grow in their knowledge by first remembering more, progressing to knowing more which they can then draw on as they create, explore and explain their own performance and those of others.

We understand how important academic and subject specific vocabulary is in the acquisition of knowledge. Consequently, teachers ensure that the Get Set 4 P.E. vocabulary pyramid are taught throughout P.E. topics.

We determine progress in P.E. as 'remembering more, knowing more and applying more'. We believe that when new knowledge and existing knowledge connect in pupils’ minds, this gives rise to understanding. 

We look for children, as their knowledge and understanding develops, to show that they can make connections, draw parallels and use increasingly sophisticated techniques which draw upon their physical education knowledge.

Our Enacted Physical Education Curriculum

Our curriculum design is based upon evidence from cognitive science. Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction are fundamental in the day-to-day teaching of lessons. The main principles that underpin this are:

• regular reviews and the revisiting of prior learning
• continual checking of understanding through effective questioning
• strong teacher modelling and guided practice
• carefully sequenced lessons that use ‘chunked learning’, allowing new learning to be retained
• precise feedback for our children

In addition, we also understand that learning is invisible in the short term. Cognitive science tells us that in order for pupils to have a greater depth of understanding and sustain mastery they must first master the basics, which takes time.

A coherent and deliberately sequenced P.E. curriculum ensures that we practise things repeatedly so children get better at them, and we revise things on a regular basis so that they don’t forget them.

Our Learnt Physical Education Curriculum

 The impact of our curriculum can be measured through two main questions

• How well are our pupils coping with the curriculum content?
• How well are they retaining previously taught content?

The vast majority of pupils will sustain mastery of motor competence, rules, strategies and tactics and healthy participation. Activities are planned for pupils to demonstrate their depth of understanding in these three pillars of physical education. We regularly monitor pupils to ensure that they are on track to reach the expectations of our curriculum.

To explore how this curriculum area is taught in your child's class please refer to their class page.