“A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities.”
National Curriculum for Physical Education

At Cavendish Church of England Primary School, Physical Education helps children develop the physical competence, confidence and understanding needed to enjoy being active.

We want every child to experience success in PE. Through carefully sequenced teaching, children develop fundamental movement skills before applying them with increasing control, accuracy and tactical understanding across games, gymnastics, dance and athletics.

PE also provides important opportunities to develop teamwork, resilience, communication, leadership and fair play.

Physical Education reflects our school vision: We Learn. We Love. We Belong. Children learn how their bodies move and how skills improve through practice; they learn to encourage, cooperate with and respect others; and they experience the sense of belonging that comes from participating, performing and achieving together.

Our PE Curriculum

Our PE curriculum is built directly from the National Curriculum for Physical Education and is organised as a two-year rolling programme for our mixed-age classes.

Coverage is considered across the complete two-year cycle so that pupils experience a broad and progressive curriculum rather than repeating the same activities each year.

Across their time at Cavendish, children progressively develop their knowledge and skills through:

• fundamental movement and locomotion;
• sending, receiving and ball control;
• invasion games;
• net/wall and target games;
• striking and fielding;
• gymnastics;
• dance;
• athletics;
• outdoor and adventurous activity;
• swimming and water safety; and
• evaluation, officiating and leadership.

Skills are taught explicitly before being applied within increasingly demanding games, sequences, performances and challenges.

Our Mixed-Age Class Structure

Our PE curriculum is specifically planned around the mixed-age structure of Cavendish.

Robins – EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2
Reception children develop the foundations of physical competence through the EYFS area of Physical Development, while Year 1 and Year 2 work towards the statutory Key Stage 1 PE curriculum.

Across the two-year programme, children develop locomotion, running, jumping and landing, ball skills using hands and feet, gymnastics, dance, target and net/wall foundations and athletics.

Reception children explore movement, space and equipment with increasing confidence. Year 1 pupils develop greater control, while Year 2 pupils increasingly combine skills and begin to make choices within simple games and performances.

Wrens – Year 3 and Year 4
Children apply their developing physical skills to increasingly structured games and performances.

Across the two-year curriculum, pupils experience activities including netball, basketball, handball, tag rugby, tennis, badminton, gymnastics, dance and athletics.

Children develop greater control and technique while learning to make tactical decisions, attack and defend, use space effectively, perform with others and evaluate how performance can be improved.

Owls – Year 5 and Year 6
Children apply skills with increasing fluency, accuracy and independence.

Their curriculum includes basketball, tag rugby, hockey, football, netball, tennis, rounders, striking and fielding, gymnastics, dance and athletics.

Older pupils are increasingly expected to think tactically, adapt their play, analyse performance, officiate fairly, coach others and take leadership roles.

Progression is therefore not about simply asking older pupils to do more. It is about performing with greater control, choice, tactical understanding, independence and leadership.

Fundamental Movement and Physical Competence

Secure fundamental movement skills provide the foundations for later success in PE.

In Robins, children develop skills including running, jumping, landing, balancing, throwing, catching, kicking and changing direction.

As pupils progress through school, these fundamental skills are refined and combined within increasingly demanding contexts.

For example, children progress from simply sending and receiving a ball to selecting an appropriate pass under pressure; from running safely within a space to using speed and movement tactically; and from creating simple balances to performing controlled and increasingly complex gymnastic sequences.

Our aim is to help children become physically confident and increasingly efficient movers, whatever their starting point.

Games and Tactical Understanding

Games provide opportunities for children to combine physical skill with thinking, decision-making and teamwork.

Younger pupils begin through simple games involving space, direction, sending and receiving and basic attacking and defending.

As children progress, they learn increasingly sophisticated principles including maintaining possession, creating and exploiting space, marking, supporting teammates, transitioning between attack and defence and adapting tactics in response to an opponent.

In upper Key Stage 2, children are also increasingly expected to understand rules, officiate fairly and contribute to tactical decisions and leadership.

Competition is used appropriately as an opportunity to apply learning, develop resilience and demonstrate respect and sportsmanship.

Gymnastics and Dance

Gymnastics develops children's strength, flexibility, balance, control and creativity.

Children progress from exploring and linking simple shapes and movements to creating increasingly fluent sequences involving features such as symmetry, asymmetry, flight, apparatus, partner work, counter balance and counter tension.

Dance gives children opportunities to communicate ideas through movement.

They develop from copying and creating simple movement patterns to using motif, levels, pathways, formations, timing, canon, dynamics and expression within increasingly sophisticated performances.

In both gymnastics and dance, children learn to observe, evaluate and refine their work as well as perform it.

Athletics and Personal Best

Athletics enables children to develop and refine their running, jumping and throwing techniques.

Children are encouraged to recognise their own progress and understand that success in PE is not simply about being the fastest or strongest pupil.

From early athletics foundations in Robins, children progress towards increasingly efficient technique and begin to use measured outcomes and feedback to improve performance.

In Owls, pupils increasingly analyse technique, set targets, use performance information and take responsibility for supporting the improvement of others.

The concept of personal best helps children recognise effort, improvement and perseverance as important aspects of physical achievement.

Outdoor and Adventurous Activity

Outdoor and adventurous activity forms part of the statutory Key Stage 2 PE curriculum.

At Cavendish, this is developed through planned opportunities involving orienteering, route-finding, problem-solving and collaborative team challenges.

Younger Key Stage 2 pupils develop skills in following routes, using simple maps, symbols and keys, communicating and working cooperatively.

Older pupils progress towards more complex navigation, strategic decision-making, leadership and adapting plans in response to feedback.

These experiences provide valuable opportunities for children to develop resilience, communication, cooperation and independence alongside their physical skills.

Swimming and Water Safety

Swimming is an important statutory element of the Key Stage 2 curriculum and is monitored separately from our land-based PE units.

By the end of Year 6, pupils are assessed against the three statutory expectations of being able to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres;
• use a range of strokes effectively; and
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

We track children's swimming outcomes so that pupils who have not yet secured these expectations can be identified and supported before leaving primary school.

The Cavendish 5 in PE

As across our curriculum, the Cavendish 5 support high-quality teaching and learning in Physical Education.

Retrieval
Children revisit previously learned techniques, rules, vocabulary and tactical ideas so that new physical learning builds securely upon earlier experiences.

I Do, We Do, You Do
Teachers explicitly model skills and techniques before children practise them with support and move towards increasingly independent application.

Purposeful Practice
Children have repeated opportunities to practise physical skills with a clear purpose before applying them within games, sequences, performances or challenges.

High-Quality Questioning
Children are encouraged to explain choices, recognise successful techniques, consider tactical options and identify how performance could be improved.

Feedback
Immediate teacher and peer feedback helps children make physical adjustments, refine technique and recognise their next steps.

PE in the Early Years

Physical development is a fundamental part of children's experience in Reception.

Through the EYFS area of Physical Development, children develop strength, balance, coordination and spatial awareness and learn to move safely and energetically.

They run, jump, dance, hop, skip, balance, throw, catch and explore different ways of travelling.

Our PE curriculum sits alongside the rich opportunities for physical development within everyday EYFS provision, including outdoor play and opportunities to climb and negotiate space and obstacles.

Reception children share practical contexts with Year 1 and Year 2 where appropriate, but their expectations remain developmentally appropriate and rooted in the EYFS.

Inclusion in PE

PE is for every child.

Teaching is adapted so that pupils can participate meaningfully while retaining the ambition of the intended learning.

Adaptations may include changing:

• the size or weight of equipment;
• the size of the playing area;
• distances;
• rules;
• groupings;
• methods of communication; or
• the complexity of a task.

This enables children with SEND, medical needs, lower confidence or different physical starting points to experience success while continuing to develop the same important knowledge and skills.

For pupils who are particularly secure, greater depth comes through increased decision-making, tactical complexity, performance quality, analysis, officiating, coaching and leadership — not simply through making a task more physically demanding.

Safe Practice

Learning how to participate safely is an important part of PE.

Children are taught to use equipment appropriately, respond to stopping signals, recognise safe spaces and understand expectations relating to warm-up, cool-down and participation.

Teachers consider surfaces, equipment, weather conditions, hydration, footwear, jewellery and individual medical needs when planning physical activity.

As children mature, they increasingly understand their own responsibility for safe and responsible participation.

Assessment in PE

Assessment in PE focuses on the curriculum that has been taught, not simply on children's natural sporting ability.

Teachers use observation, questioning, applied games, performances, personal-best information, pupil reflection and selected photographic or video evidence to understand what pupils know and can do.

We consider children's developing:

• physical technique and control;
• application of skills;
• decision-making and tactical understanding;
• performance quality;
• ability to evaluate and improve;
• understanding of rules and fair play;
• teamwork and communication; and
• leadership and officiating.

Assessment is used to identify what children need to practise, revisit or refine so that subsequent learning builds securely upon previous experience.

PE, Health and Wellbeing

Physical Education helps children understand that being active is an important part of a healthy life.

Through positive experiences of movement, sport and physical challenge, we want pupils to develop confidence in their bodies and recognise the physical and emotional benefits of regular activity.

PE also develops qualities that extend beyond sport. Children experience challenge, manage success and disappointment, persevere when something is difficult and learn that improvement often requires practice, feedback and determination.

Our aim is not simply to develop children who are good at sport, but children who are confident enough to find ways of being active that they can enjoy throughout their lives.

PE and Our Christian Vision

Physical Education provides powerful opportunities to live out our understanding of community, dignity and belonging.

Children learn that everyone has different strengths and starting points and that every pupil deserves the opportunity to participate, improve and experience success.

Team games teach children that their actions affect others. They learn to cooperate, encourage teammates, follow rules, compete fairly, manage disagreement and show respect to opponents.

Leadership and officiating provide opportunities to develop responsibility, courage and service, while personal challenge encourages perseverance and resilience.

Our Christian vision reminds us to value the whole child. Through PE, we want children to recognise their own potential while also helping those around them to flourish.

The Impact of PE at Cavendish

By the time children leave Cavendish, we want them to be physically confident, increasingly competent and positive about being active.

They should have secure fundamental movement skills and be able to apply them across a range of games, gymnastics, dance, athletics and outdoor activities.

They should understand how to work as part of a team, make tactical decisions, evaluate performance, respond to feedback and demonstrate respect and fair play.

They should also understand the importance of physical activity for their health and wellbeing and have the confidence to continue participating beyond primary school.

Most importantly, we want every child to leave Cavendish believing that physical activity is something in which they can participate, improve and belong.

We Learn. We Love. We Belong.