The national curriculum for physical education aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
• are physically active for sustained periods of time
• engage in competitive sports and activities
• lead healthy, active lives.

At St Barnabas Primary School, we believe that physical education, experienced in a safe and supportive environment, is a unique and vital contributor to a pupil’s physical development and well-being.  Our broad and balanced physical education curriculum is intended to provide for pupils’ increasing self-confidence in their ability to manage themselves and their bodies within a variety of movement situations.  Progressive learning objectives, combined with sympathetic and varied teaching approaches, endeavour to provide stimulating, enjoyable, satisfying and appropriately challenging learning experiences for all of our pupils.  Through the selection of suitably differentiated and logically developed tasks, it is intended that our children, irrespective of their innate ability, will enjoy success and be motivated to further develop their individual potential.

Through lesson time, specialist coaching and our broad range of sports clubs, we support pupils in developing skilful use of the body, the ability to remember, repeat and refine actions and to perform them with increasing control, co-ordination, fluency and safety. We also support pupils in developing an increasing ability to select, link and apply skills, tactics and compositional ideas.

Children are encouraged to describe and make simple judgements on their own and others work, and to use their observations and judgements to improve performance. We believe in the importance of drawing cross-curricular links, and to this end, pupils are taught about the effects of exercise on the body in science as well as PE.

At St Barnabas Primary, we promote an understanding of safe practice, and the development of a sense of responsibility towards a child’s own and others’ safety and well-being.

Pupils have opportunities to take part in tournaments in school, out of school across the county and even at Bath Spa University. We work with Wiltshire Sports, Lavington Secondary School, Dauntsey School and PH Coaching to ensure our children have the best specialist teaching.