Aims and purposes of PE
PE offers opportunities for children to:
- become skilful and intelligent performers;
- acquire and develop skills, performing with increasing physical competence and confidence, in a range of physical activities and contexts;
- learn how to select and apply skills, tactics and compositional ideas to suit activities that need different approaches and ways of thinking;
- develop their ideas in a creative way;
- set targets for themselves and compete against others, individually and as team members;
- understand what it takes to persevere, succeed and acknowledge others' success;
- respond to a variety of challenges in a range of physical contexts and environments;
- take the initiative, lead activity and focus on improving aspects of their own performance;
- discover their own aptitudes and preferences for different activities;
- make informed decisions about the importance of exercise in their lives;
- develop positive attitudes to participation in physical activity.
Content of PE at key stages 1 and 2
Key stage 1
During key stage 1, children build on their natural enthusiasm for movement, using it to explore and learn about their world. They start to play and work with other children in pairs and small groups. By watching, listening and experimenting with movement and ideas, they develop their skills in movement and their coordination, and enjoy expressing and testing themselves in a variety of situations. Children:
- find out what they can do as they explore a range of basic skills, actions and ideas, such as running, jumping and turning, throwing or kicking a ball and responding to music in dance;
- learn to practise by repeating what they have done in ways that make it better, such as making movements more controlled, effective or expressive;
- use movement imaginatively to communicate ideas and feelings;
- watch, copy and describe what they and others have practised, to build their awareness of how to improve the way they move and play;
- recognise that their bodies feel different when they run short or longer distances, move slowly or suddenly, and lift heavy objects or float in water;
- learn to use space safely when they work alone and with others, showing increasing control over their movements.
Key stage 2
During key stage 2, children enjoy being active and using their creativity and imagination in physical activity. They learn new skills, find out how to use them in different ways, and link them to make actions, phrases and sequences of movement. They enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. They develop an understanding of how to succeed in different activities and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success. Children:
- enjoy being active, showing what they can do;
- practise new skills across a range of activities that may include dance, gymnastics, games, swimming, athletic and outdoor and adventurous activities;
- learn consistency by repeating their movements and linking their skills until their performance is clearer, more accurate and controlled over time;
- pace themselves in challenges in activities such as swimming and athletic activities;
- use their creativity in performing dances, making up their own games, planning gymnastic sequences, responding to problem-solving and challenge activities;
- know how to improve aspects of the quality of their work, using information provided by the teacher and information and communication technology (ICT) opportunities, and increasingly help themselves and others perform effectively;
- know why activity is important to their health and wellbeing;
- understand the rules and conventions of taking part in different activities safely.
| Building on children's earlier experiences
Before embarking on key stage 1 work, many children will have attended nursery and reception classes where they will have had the opportunity to move and play, alone and with others, in both indoor and outdoor environments. Three- or four-year-olds will have experienced the curriculum through a range of planned, structured play situations. They will have had opportunities to find out and learn about their world and to develop a range of skills that promote their own physical development.
These experiences are likely to have included:
- developing manipulative and motor skills through learning and playing:
- with construction materials, such as building blocks, posting boxes, mats, boxes, climbing frames, puzzles;
- with art and natural materials, for example by painting; doing collage work; using crayons, brushes, Plasticine, paper, water, dry sand;
- with science materials, for example lenses, magnets, mirrors;
- with movement equipment, for example hoops, balls, steps, swings, ladders, beanbags, wheeled aids;
- experience of spatial awareness, control and coordination gained through:
- imaginative play, for example in a play house, on a space ship;
- games play, for example chasing and dodging games, starting and stopping, experiencing stillness, throw-and-catch games, skipping and jump-rope games, other playground games;
- movement, for example crawling, creeping, shuffling, jumping, landing, turning, rolling, swinging, climbing;
- mathematics, for example space and position, shape, patterns, relationships;
- responding to sounds, music, signs, symbols and words, for example through:
- recognising, locating, responding and moving to sounds, words and rhythms;
- singing;
- playing a variety of instruments;
- creating sounds;
- developing an awareness of health and the importance of caring for their bodies, for example by appreciating simple hygiene, washing hands, keeping clean and tidy, wearing appropriate clothes for play, playing safely;
- developing observation skills, for example by appreciating the work of others, working in pairs and small groups, designing and making things together, observing and describing what they see;
- sharing, turn-taking, choosing and making decisions.
This scheme of work aims to build on these early experiences. For example, in
Gymnastic activities Unit 1, children could build on their previous movement experiences by exploring some basic gymnastic actions, such as travelling, rolling, sliding, climbing, swinging, stillness and balance, on the floor and using indoor apparatus or an outdoor climbing frame.
Similarly, developing their previous experience of moving and responding to simple rhythms, children could use different stimuli to explore body actions such as travelling, jumping, turning, gesture and stillness. For example, in
Dance activities Unit 1, they could use different parts of their body, such as their legs and arms, to respond to a musical stimulus or a theme such as 'moving like clowns' which would involve funny walking patterns.
Children's previous experiences of spatial awareness, control and coordination gained through imaginative play, movement and the use of motor skills help prepare them for developing basic games ideas. They can run in spaces avoiding others; throw and retrieve beanbags, quoits and balls; and learn to play simple games such as one-v-one net games in which a beanbag is thrown into an opponent's hoop to score a point. In
Games activities Unit 1 they can explore different ways of using a variety of equipment, learn to handle a small racket or bat, and watch a ball and how it moves.
Expectations
By the end of key stage 1, the performance of the great majority of pupils should be within the range of levels 1 to 3. Most pupils might be expected to achieve level 2.
By the end of key stage 2, the performance of the great majority of pupils should be within the range of levels 2 to 5. Most pupils might be expected to achieve level 4.
Features of progression
To ensure children make progress in PE as they move through key stages 1 and 2, teaching should provide opportunities for children to progress:
- from early movement explorations to acquiring and developing a range of skills that show improved control and coordination, and then to refining and extending these skills and being able to perform them with some accuracy, consistency and fluency;
- from the simple selection and application of skills in a series or in combination to the planning and use of more complex sequences, games strategies and compositional principles;
- from being able to describe what they see being performed to making simple evaluations of performance and being able to use this information to improve the quality of their work;
- from knowing that exercise makes them hot or out of breath to developing an understanding of why activity might be good for them and how important it is to their general health and wellbeing, and how different types of fitness affect their performance.
These broad indicators of progression are incorporated in the national curriculum programmes of study for PE under four aspects:
- 'Acquiring and developing skills';
- 'Selecting and applying skills, tactics and compositional ideas';
- 'Evaluating and improving performance';
- 'Knowledge and understanding of fitness and health'.
These aspects are closely interlinked. For example, the evaluating and improving of performance should take into account the relationship between developing, selecting and applying skills, tactics and compositional ideas, and fitness and health. The quality of a performance and the selection of skills, tactics and compositional ideas are affected by the range and level of skill, the type and degree of fitness, and the understanding of the concept of the activity.
These aspects and the contexts for their development in the PE programmes of study, together with the expectations in the units, are 'pitched' to correspond with the national curriculum level descriptions in PE.
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