“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand… It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination…the rules of the game are the same for everyone, and behaviour is guided by fair play and good sportsmanship”
-Nelson Mandela, 2000
 

The PE department are very passionate about physical activity and sport, believing that there is a sport for everyone. The department prides itself on personalised teaching that gives every pupil the opportunity to reach their full potential by building upon existing skills and excellent assessment for learning strategies. By the time they leave school, students will have a good foundation of knowledge and skills that will allow them to make informed choices about their health, well-being and what sports are available to them. Our core aim is that they leave with a passion for sport or physical activity and an enthusiasm to lead a healthy, active lifestyle.

The functioning of the department is underpinned by a set of eight values: teamwork; respect; inspiration; equality; determination; courage; excellence; friendship. The PE staff implicitly teach students to express these values within lessons as these are the mental processes that will enable students to succeed in school and beyond. For example, students will be encouraged to show determination and courage to push their bodies further to increase their personal high jump, they will use teamwork and friendship to overcome their opponents in rugby, they will be taught the importance of demonstrating respect and equality through behaviours in football, and they will take inspiration from others to demonstrate excellence in netball. In addition, the school boasts an outstanding level of competitive sport and enrichment provision whereby students regularly implement these values further. The teaching of these values will help to develop the whole child, not only in a physical activity setting, but also in areas such as school, work and family life.

The PE department’s assessment at key stage 3 reflects our aim of developing the whole child. We assess students on their: thinking skills (head) including knowledge, understanding, creativity and leadership; skills and application (hands) including skills, techniques, fitness, tactics and problem solving; motivation and effort (heart) including respect, effort and resilience. Assessment in this format enables students to understand their strongest areas and actively address areas of weakness.

Teaching and learning in PE at Acle follows a process of stepped learning, whereby students will develop core skills and tactical understanding, which build upon each other throughout key stage 3. In each year, across each activity studied, students will develop three key skills or concepts, which are progressively more challenging and will enable the students to compete against, or perform well in, sport and physical activity. Through a process of repetition and revisiting previously learned skills, students will develop metacognition in the form of muscle memory. Through this developmental approach, students at key stage 3 will be prepared for either a physical activity and healthy living pathway through Core PE, or a competitive sport pathway through GCSE PE or Sports Studies.

Building a love of sport and physical activity is achieved by offering a broad range of physical activities and implementing strategies to ensure that each child feels comfortable in their learning, and therefore can make excellent progress towards mastering the key skills or concepts they are learning. Through our stepped approach to learning sports, and our ability to make lessons fun and enjoyable for all ability levels, a child at Acle will become confident, competent, skilful and knowledgeable in a range of physical activities, providing a platform for them to continue with a lifelong physically active and healthy lifestyle.  
 

Learning Journey & Schemes of Learning

See our learning journeys, these outline the sequence of units, and progression of knowledge and skills across a key stage.

CORE PE

GCSE PE

SPORT STUDIES - CAMBRIDGE NATIONAL

The schemes of learning found below provide an insight into each individual unit within the learning journey.