At Horsforth Newlaithes Primary School, we aim to develop a fun, high-quality physical education curriculum that inspires all pupils to succeed and excel individual’s abilities in competitive sports and other physically-demanding activities. We will provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness, develops a positive growth mind-set as well as the resilience to persevere with activities, which will support our children in becoming valued members of their community. Our children will have opportunities to compete in sport and other activities that build character and help to embed democratic values such as fairness and respect. Through a diverse range of sports, we teach our children confidence, tolerance and the appreciation of their own and others’ strengths and weaknesses. Events such as sports days, cluster and city competitions develop links and strengthen relationships with parents and the wider community. PE at HNPS is an imperative element of the curriculum, in which we are passionate about the need to teach children how to cooperate and collaborate with others, as part of a team, understanding fairness and equity of play to embed life-long values.

At Horsforth Newlaithes Primary School, pupils participate in weekly high quality PE and sporting activities. Our PE programme incorporates a wide range of activities to encourage engagement from all pupils. All pupils receive at least two hours of high quality PE using the vast outside space or school hall.
Our PE curriculum is sequenced precisely to ensure progression of knowledge and skills throughout a child’s primary education, thus enabling children to build upon prior experiences and apply these fluently, with confidence. Each year, lessons will be focussed on the following threshold concepts:

• Dance
• Gymnastics
• Invasion games
• Net and wall games
• Striking and fielding games
• Multiskills and athletics
• Health and fitness

Throughout school the threshold concepts are developed through our knowledge categories which encourage the use of individual skills, tactical and game awareness, and a focus on health and fitness. Physical Education is fundamental in developing healthy lifestyles in young people and at HNPS we provide a wide array of opportunities to develop this and sporting skills outside of the normal curriculum time. Regular extra-curricular clubs take place for KS1 and KS2 and offer a wide variety of sports, including: football, athletics, golf, cross country, tennis, cricket and Wake Up Shake Up.

Playtimes are an important part of our pupils being happy, healthy and ready to learn. We have well-staffed and equipped playgrounds, a sports field, skipping ropes and an Outdoor Area specifically for the EYFS children. We also have a trim trail which was designed to provide opportunities for children to develop and improve fundamental skills using various body parts.

To develop leadership and communication skills, children in Year 6 can apply to become a Young Sports Leader which is a responsible role in encouraging younger children to learn how to play collaborative games, respecting rules and to be as active as possible during playtimes. Children selected are positive role-models for younger members of the school, organising lunchtime games and assisting with annual sports days.

We aim for all children at Newlaithes to enjoy PE, sport and physical education and to reach the expected standard in PE at the end of each year. Our curriculum ensures that children develop an interest in and a love of PE which enables them to progress effectively throughout their journey at Newlaithes and fully prepared for the next stage of their PE education.

We have developed our PE curriculum based on the National Curriculum, identified the key skills and knowledge which we want children to learn and consequently make judgements against this criteria during and at the end of the year enabling us to measure the impact teaching and learning has. The majority of assessment which takes place is formative assessment allowing teachers to adapt their teaching to match the needs of the children.

The PE subject leader monitors the impact of the PE curriculum through protected monitoring time during which they complete a range of activities: lesson observations; scrutiny of planning; speaking to staff and children and analysing assessment data (introduced summer 2022). This process is quality assured by the Senior Leadership Team and agreed actions are added to subject leader action plans.