Physical Education

At Oakridge School, our intent with Physical Education (PE) is to build an engaging and enjoyable curriculum.  We aim to provide children with the opportunity to develop their understanding and skills in a broad range of physical activities, which falls in line with the National Curriculum.  The scheme that we use for PE is called ‘GetSet4PE’.  The scheme provides children with the opportunity year on year to improve their knowledge which in turn improves their skill set.  The curriculum is designed for all abilities, genders, and physical capabilities.

We link our PE lessons with our school values:

  • Perseverance- every child to try their best at whatever activity/sport that they are participating in
  • Integrity- by always doing the right thing (in a PE context, following rules and playing fairly)
  • Respect- that everyone, no matter their ability, is being treated fairly
  • Kindness- by being helpful and supporting fellow class members in lessons
  • Children within Key Stage 1 take part in lessons that aim to master the basic movements: running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing their ABC’s (ability, balance and co-ordination)  They participate in team games, learning team tactics, as well as perform dance moves using simple movement patterns.

Key Stage 2 children build upon the skills learnt in KS1 with the introduction of Sports and applying suitable tactics for attacking and defending. They develop strength, flexibility and technique within gymnastics and building upon a range of dance movement patterns in dance.

The curriculum works to allow for steady progression to enhance understanding.  For example, within one of the basic movements (catching a ball), Year 1 & 2 children learn how to catch a ball with two hands. Progressing into Year 3 & 4, where pupils learn to catch a variety of different shape balls under pressure. Leading into Year 5 & 6 where pupils learn how to catch a ball in a game type situation and understand the consequences of catching a ball (to dismiss a batter, to stump a batter in rounder’s or cricket).

Our PE lessons use a variety of teaching and learning strategies. Teaching strategies include a mixture of teacher led, demonstrations, individual and group activities, allowing children to explore/experiment and at times teachers intervening when it is necessary to do so. Lessons follow a similar pattern that consist of a warm up, introduction, main activities and a discussion at the end. When appropriate, children are given the opportunity to work with and compete with each other in a variety of sports.   When the element of competition is included, teams will be made carefully to not only make if fair, but to encourage children to work out new strategies, which increases their levels of knowledge and understanding.

The element of competition and representing your school is prevalent when playing other schools in fixtures or taking part in competitions from external sources.  Year 6 boys and girls take part in cup, league and friendly fixtures in football.  Year 5 boys and girls take part in cup and friendly fixtures.  Selected children from year 1-4 take part in tournaments against other schools. The aim of the school is to continue to grow our fixture list with more year groups and to introduce a girl’s netball team in year 5 & 6.  The school provides after school sport clubs throughout the whole year that are led by both staff in school and external agencies. Lastly, one of the highlights of the school calendar is Sports Day where all children from nursery to year 6 take part in a variety of activities or athletic events.  

The curriculum documents that outline PE at Oakridge are:

  • Curriculum Progression Document
  • Curriculum Content document
Click to Download pe-and-sports-premium-plan-2024-2025-doc [docx 42KB] Click to Download
Click to Download pe-and-sports-premium-plan-2025-2026-doc [docx 37KB] Click to Download

Swimming Update 2025

The percentage of last year's leavers that can swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25m                   28%
The percentage of last year's leavers that can use a range of strokes effectively 15%
The percentage of last year's leavers that can perform safe self-rescue in different water based situations  85%