Physical Education

In St. Columba’s we strongly believe that Physical Education and Movement (PE) has a fundamental role to play in the development of the whole child.  It provides the foundation for a healthy life style, promotes self-  esteem, reduces stress, improves concentration, fosters good behaviour and allows children to develop their understanding of co-operation, fairness and respect for  others through active participation.  By employing a wide range of teaching strategies to deliver a broad and balanced programme of physical education we strive to provide all our children; with activities designed to be enjoyable, dynamic, purposeful and regular.

The range of physical activities is wide and includes athletics, dance, games, gymnastics, swimming and outdoor education. A high quality programme is designed to ensure the needs, abilities and interests of all individual children.  We believe it is important that children are given opportunities to participate in a range of enjoyable physical activities and good nutrition habits at an early age so they will be more likely to continue being physically active throughout the rest of their lives. 

The early years are essential in laying the foundations of physical competency and positive attitudes towards physical activity. The Foundation Stage builds upon the child’s own experiences and understanding from home, pre-school and community.  The activities in the Foundation Stage aim to enhance the physical development of children, their understanding of themselves and their relationships with others.

This will continue throughout Key Stage one and two and careful planning helps to ensure continuity, progression and achievement through a board and balanced Physical Education programme.  In St Columba’s pupils are provided with a wide variety of opportunities to progress from;

• simple movement explorations and performances to developing increasing competence, control, co-ordination and spatial awareness in a range of physical movement skills and being able to refine, extend and perform the skills with improved accuracy and consistency;
• exploring and using a wide range of large and small equipment to using equipment appropriately and with increasing confidence and control;
• sharing and playing co-operatively in small groups to working co-operatively and in playing competitively in a variety of physical activity situations;
• recognising and following rules and safety procedures to being able to apply the rules and safety procedures in the appropriate context;
• responding to a range of stimuli to developing their responses in movement by exploring, creating and performing movement phrases in response to different stimuli;
• being able to talk about movements of themselves and others to being able to make decisions, observe, appreciate, discuss and evaluate the movements of themselves and others and recognise what makes a good performance;
• understanding the reasons for changing for Physical Education to understanding the need to wear appropriate clothing and footwear for different activities;
• experiencing a variety of warm up and cool down activities to understanding the reasons for warming up and cooling down;
• being aware of the effects of exercise on the body to developing an understanding of the relationship between physical activity, good health and well-being