Adapting the scheme
If a scheme of work is going to be meaningful, it will need to be relevant to the needs of the children in the school. Teachers are not required to teach this scheme of work. They are encouraged to adapt or personalise it as they wish. Each school's ethos and tradition may offer teachers a range of alternatives for the scheme of work. The most important point is that children should be motivated to enjoy and succeed in the subject.
Children with special educational needs
PE lessons can pose a challenge to some children who have special educational needs. There are a number of ways to deliver physical activity with the aim of including young people who have a range of abilities. These are shown in this table.
| Open activities |
All children can get involved in the same activity |
| Modified activities |
The task as a whole is adapted to make the pitch easier or harder to suit the needs of individuals |
| Parallel activities |
Children are presented with different activities from the same activity area, and use rules, structures and equipment that suit their needs. For example, in net games, some children might play with short tennis equipment while others play 'polybat' |
| Included activities |
Children take part together in an activity but different conditions apply to members of the group or class |
| Separate activities |
Children need activities specific to their needs, and these are not the same as those given to the rest of the class |
Teachers need to decide on the most appropriate way to engage and involve children so that they learn and make progress. All of the above approaches are appropriate at different times. No one approach should be used to the exclusion of all others. Decisions should be made on what best suits the needs of the individual and class. The use of classroom assistants to support the teacher, individuals and groups can have a considerable and positive impact.
Assessing progress
Watching children work, talking to them about what they are doing and listening to them describe their work will generate useful assessment information. The teaching and learning suggested in these units should provide a rich source of information that may be used to inform future teaching. Above all, the suggested range of teaching approaches should help teachers acquire considerable knowledge of their children's needs, their rate of progress and standard of attainment.
The learning outcomes in each unit indicate how children might show what they have learnt. Monitoring these learning outcomes during the course of teaching a unit will help teachers establish each child's progress, and feedback during lessons on how far the learning outcomes have been met will help teachers set appropriate targets for individuals.
The expectations provide brief descriptions of attainment for each unit, and they should help teachers to decide if individual children's progress differs markedly from that expected of the majority. Teachers may wish to note this and possibly to use the information to provide feedback to:
- parents, in discussion or in a report;
- help the next class teacher plan appropriate work;
- the children as the basis for future target-setting.
Recording every aspect of individual children's progress is neither necessary nor desirable. Records should be selective and brief. They should be fit for purpose and teachers need to have a clear reason for recording the information. Significant achievement or weakness may be noted to serve as a basis for planning appropriate challenges or to form part of the annual report on progress.
At the end of key stages 1 and 2 teachers are not required to make statutory judgements about children's attainment in relation to the attainment targets and level descriptions for PE. However, the national curriculum level descriptions can be used by teachers in their planning and evaluation of children's work to ensure they make progress.
The expectations at the end of each unit are closely related to the level descriptions. They outline what children might be expected to attain through the core tasks in the units in each of the areas of activity.
National curriculum level descriptions describe the types and range of performance that children working at a particular level will characteristically demonstrate. They refer to the knowledge, skills and understanding that might be demonstrated by children across the range of activities. They do not refer to specific areas of activity. So if a teacher wants to determine the level description that best fits a child's work in PE, it is important to take an overall view across all aspects of the child's work in PE. It would be inappropriate to weight activities or attempt to attach a level to work in one area of activity.
Links with other areas of the curriculum
As well as making its own distinctive contribution to the school curriculum, PE contributes to the wider aims of primary education. Questions schools might like to consider include:
- To what extent does the school's PE scheme of work contribute to the development of literacy; mathematics; ICT; design and technology; music; key skills; personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship; and thinking skills?
- How might PE's contribution to these areas be enhanced?
On the back of each unit there are references to other areas of the curriculum that relate particularly to the work in each unit. These indicate the potential to incorporate cross-curricular work or to benefit from the links that can be made during the key-stage planning of all areas of the national curriculum.
There are also opportunities to make links within PE by making explicit connections between areas of activity. Where this is particularly relevant, there is information in the 'About this unit' section.
Here are some examples of links between PE and other areas of the curriculum.
Language and communication
Throughout the scheme of work, children have opportunities to:
- develop their language skills through working with others to plan and evaluate work. They talk about and discuss options open to them, for example what movements to use in a dance or gymnastic phrase; they describe what they do and see, for example whether the ball was kicked with the right or left foot, whether a sequence flowed; they explain what they intend to do and how they intend to achieve it, for example that they need to run as far as possible in three seconds, and that they will use short steps to get the best acceleration;
- use correct terminology to pass information on to others;
- read diagrams, maps and instructions that explain what they can do or where they must go;
- extract information from databases and CD-ROMs about techniques and skills that they can use;
- extract information from the internet about where they can go to get involved in physical activities and sport.
PSHE and citizenship
Throughout the scheme of work children have opportunities to:
- work with others, listening to their ideas and treating them with respect;
- cooperate and collaborate with others, in teams and groups, to achieve a goal together;
- develop an understanding of fair play and fairness through knowing and applying rules and conventions;
- develop a respect for, and positive attitudes towards the environment and their own health, safety and wellbeing;
- learn to recognise and value physical differences, abilities and aptitudes, and to find ways of accepting and including all.
Thinking skills
All the units in this scheme of work provide opportunities to promote the following thinking skills.
Information-processing skills
These enable children to locate and collect relevant information, to sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast, and to analyse part-whole relationships. In the PE units children have opportunities to use the information they receive in a variety of ways to make decisions about what to do.
Reasoning skills
These enable children to give reasons for opinions and actions, to draw inferences and make deductions, to use precise language to explain what they think and to make judgements and decisions informed by reasons or evidence. In the PE units children have opportunities to explain what is required, why something is effective, or how and why their body is affected by exercise. They can also observe, develop and explain tactics or compositional ideas.
Enquiry skills
These enable children to ask relevant questions, to pose and define problems, to plan what to do and how to research, to predict outcomes and anticipate consequences, and to test conclusions and improve ideas. In the PE units the initial stage of learning in each area of activity is about exploring possibilities and trying out ideas, skills and different rules and approaches. Children form hypotheses that they put into action and then review the results of their work.
Creative-thinking skills
These enable children to generate and extend ideas, to suggest hypotheses, to apply imagination, and to look for alternative innovative outcomes. In the units related to dance and gymnastic activities, there are opportunities for children to develop creative-thinking skills through composing and creating dance and sequences of movement. In games activities children can make up and adopt rules and devise practices, and in athletic activities they can devise competitions. Creative thinking is very important if children are to perform independently and with improving quality.
Evaluation skills
These enable children to evaluate information, to judge the value of what they read, hear and do, to develop criteria for judging the value of their own and others' work or ideas, and to have confidence in their judgements. There are opportunities to develop these skills in the 'Evaluating and improving performance' section of each unit. This gives children opportunities to observe, copy, describe and comment on what they and others do, and to use the information gained from watching and listening to understand what works and what is not so successful. They can make judgements about the quality and effectiveness of their own and others' work and make decisions about what they need to do to improve.
Work at home and outside lessons
Many units provide opportunities for teachers to set worthwhile tasks that can be completed outside formal teaching time. Suitable tasks include:
- practising specific skills;
- activities that promote health;
- watching live or recorded sport and dance;
- getting ideas and information using ICT.
Most schools offer a range of extra-curricular activities in PE that can provide a range of different opportunities for children. Some children need to be encouraged to attend. For some the need to get involved in competitive intramural or inter-school activities will enhance and extend their learning. Others may wish to take part in 'club' activities for fun or at more gentle levels of competition. Some will want to take part in creative activities and activities that help develop their feelings of fitness and wellbeing. Schools might consider how to provide opportunities for as many children as possible that will promote higher activity levels, develop their skilfulness and enable them to be challenged. Schools need to recognise the effect that engagement in activity out of lessons has on children's skilfulness, confidence, self-esteem and feelings of competence.
Schools should encourage children to attend clubs in the community to enhance their experiences. Schools need to develop good links with local providers and local authority sport development officers. If schools are promoting links with specific providers and groups, they must ensure that the provision is safe and the quality of provision good. Enormous benefits can be derived from good communication and links.
Play and break times can provide exceptional opportunities for children to practise and extend their skills. As much as 25 per cent of a child's time is spent in the playground during the years at primary school. Where the playground is set up so that purposeful activities that help children's learning are organised, not only the skill levels of many children, but also their behaviour is improved. In schools that have adopted policies of this type, a range of resources and ideas are set out from which children can choose. Midday supervisors, teachers, assistant teachers and older children are given the roles of organising and overseeing the activities, and children have the opportunity for focused practice and play. Activities need not be limited to practical or physical skill development. There can also be creative and imaginative play, reading, sand play and so on.
Opportunities to watch, see and closely observe the performance of others can give children a good idea of what they can aspire to. This is most helpful when there are opportunities to talk about what they see.
Teaching and learning
Certain key words are used in the 'Possible teaching activities' sections of the units.
| The key words are: |
| Ask |
children to show what they can already do. This is achieved by revisiting tasks and activities, and then exploring a wider range of possibilities. |
| Help |
children to improve on what they can already do and gain a better understanding of what is expected of them in the way they must carry out the core tasks and other learning activities, and in the quality of their work. They achieve this understanding by exploring possibilities, being shown new ideas, watching others, and discussing alternatives and key ideas. The result will be that children start to select and apply skills and tactics or compositional ideas to suit both the activity and what they do best. |
| Teach |
at those times in the lesson or unit when children are ready to acquire a new skill or concept, or to revise an activity they have done before but in a new way. As they explore and then select and apply skills and ideas, there will be moments when they need to be taught something new to help them to be more consistent or to operate in different ways. |
| Talk |
to a whole group or individuals to explain what, why and how they can perform and think. This will help them to consolidate their performance, enabling them to be more accurate, consistent and fluent. |
| Listen |
to what the children say about what they can and cannot do and how they feel about what they are learning. This will provide information to help the teacher adapt, modify or extend activities to suit the children better. It will also help to indicate when to move on and challenge the children with a different task or activity. |
These words illustrate some of the steps that a teacher could take in developing a lesson or series of lessons to move children on to higher standards.
These steps start with asking children to show what they can already do and then providing for their need to be stimulated and extended further. Most units and lessons begin with an introduction, then activity and explanation that links the work to what has previously been learned and experienced. Children can then be helped to understand and explore ideas and activities that indicate what they need to achieve. During this process it will become apparent what new skills and knowledge they need to be taught to develop their learning and the quality of their work. This will enable them to select and apply skills and ideas in the most appropriate and efficient manner to meet the demands of the core tasks. There will also be opportunities for the teacher to talk to children about their work and to listen to their ideas and feelings about it.
As children progress through a unit, they will go through a series of steps in the way they learn, apply their learning and improve the quality of their performance. Teachers need to recognise where children have reached and seek to move them on to the next step. The steps are set out in this table.
| Step |
Children: |
| 1. Introduction |
need to be shown and told what they must do so that they are clear about what is expected of them |
| 2. Exploration |
try out what they can already do, experiment with new skills and ideas they are shown or taught, and focus on important areas that will contribute to them performing well in the core tasks |
| 3. Selection and application |
make decisions about the skills and ideas that are most appropriate to the task. They start to use them consistently in the tasks set. Often, they will need to be taught which skills and ideas are the best to select |
| 4. Consolidation and refinement |
practise their skills and ideas in the context of the activity. They become more secure and confident with what they do. They vary their approach little but improve the slickness and fluency of their performance |
| 5. Adaptation and extension |
need to be challenged to find alternative ways of performing. They begin to make use of a wider range of skills and ideas in the tasks and start to vary their approach as the need arises and the situation changes |
| 6. Change of context/environment |
need to restructure their thinking by being moved on to a similar task with new parameters, or in a new environment or context |
Each of these steps may require different approaches to teaching and learning.
There are a number of factors that affect learning and performance in PE. Genetic inheritance, personality, life experiences and environmental opportunity are all important factors that influence learning.
Many children learn a range of knowledge and skills outside the classroom in clubs, during playtime and at home. Effective teaching recognises and builds on this learning.
The 'Points to note' column in each unit describes a range of teaching approaches that are suitable for that unit. Because of the differences between children, each child should be given the opportunity to learn in different ways. The level of skill that children develop, however, is dependent on regular and frequent engagement in physical activity, which should be the predominant part of any lesson or unit.
Find out more about getting around the schemes of work
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