Our Mission

All that we do at St Joseph’s is shaped by our commitment to our Faith. The choices we make and the expectations we nurture in our children emanate from a guiding desire to live our lives according to gospel values. For Physical Education, this means that we

• treat everyone with respect whether we are playing with or against one another.
• encourage others to achieve their best, regardless of ability or level.
• recognise that we all have skills in sport.
• realise that just because we are not good at everything, we are all still special.

Our Vision for Physical Education

Whether in victory or defeat, we maintain a positive attitude.

We want our children to be healthy and to develop a life-long commitment to their own wellbeing. We are committed to ensuring that the children at St Joseph's are fit, have healthy attitudes to eating and know the values of regular exercise.

From early beginnings in Reception, learning is designed to bring about good physical development. Children develop a solid foundational knowledge of what it means to be fit and healthy and how they have an active responsibility for that as they grow older. They will develop a broad range of physical skills. Once embedded, we apply these skills to game based situations. They will acquire the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Key themes are revisited across topics and these help children to retrieve knowledge and skills and to build on them.  Over time, they will hone their Physical skills for:

• Gymnastics: starting with core skills of balancing, travelling and rolls, they will continue to develop these areas towards putting them into sequences. They will apply these skills to different apparatus and using different equipment.
• Dance: working on basic movements and keeping to the beat using music, working towards fluent movements which they add to their own routines.
• Games Skills: focusing on fine and gross motor skills leading towards body control in a range of different ways
• Game Application: Using the skills we have developed and apply them to game situations.
• Health and fitness: encouraging children to run, jog and move; increasing their muscular endurance, helping them develop a healthy and long-lasting relationship with exercise.

Please visit other areas of the website to see our successes in sport. Also, please take time to read through the information of how we spend our Sports Funding.

Our Programme of Study

From their first day in Reception children begin working on skills and activities which promote good physical development:

Gross Motor Skills We build the foundation blocks for future learning in KS1. The children learn lots of balancing techniques, with arms out stretched and head up. They learn how to travel demonstrating good balance and how to create lines and circular movements. They learn how to rock forwards and backwards as well as side to side and begin to learn how to form a sausage roll.

By Year One the children are then ready to learn to make different shapes using their body. They learn how to balance with a partner, and how to hold a simple balance on apparatus.  They perform simple rolls including a forward roll and a teddy bear roll. 

Fine Motor Skills We sew the seeds for handwriting through direct teaching of fine motor skills. The children learn how to manipulate scissors, cutlery, tweezers, pencils, paintbrushes etc, in order to strengthen their fine motor skills. In year one the children learn to write with a cursive formation.The children in year two learn how to form continuous cursive letters.

From Year One to Six, we  follow the RealPE scheme of work which is a thorough and well-structured programme of learning. The sessions are highly focussed on fitness, development of skills and teamwork. To view the sorts of activities the RealPE programme introduces to the children, please follow the link here. There is a short film to watch. There are also three sample lessons below for you to view:

Dynamic Balance to Agility for Reception Classes

Agility in Ball Skills for Year Three

Ball Skills for Year Six

How teachers embed knowledge and skills?

All children have at least 2 hours of physical activity each week and often much more. This is made up of:

• an extended games and skills lesson which usually takes place on the fields or playground
• a PE lesson in the hall, which can be gymnastics, using the apparatus, dance or skills work.
• a swimming lesson between May and October in our on-site swimming pool. 

We have an on-site swimming pool. Our dedicated swimming teachers ensure that, from an early age, children learn a full range of strokes as well as some basic rescue work.  Each year, we are able to demonstrate that over 95% of year six are able to swim the expected 25m.

In addition to the minimum of two hours children do each week for PE lessons, we participate in many local competitions. In 2022, our first post lock down tournament was the Epsom and Ewell Netball Rally. It was wonderful to see that we had not lost our team spirit and ability. We won the tournament and brought the trophy home.

We provide a rich and varied experience of sport

Competition and Sports Days

Our sporting year culminates in our sports' days. Children of all ages take part in the traditional speed races and long distance track events. They also have much fun playing team games in house teams, all working towards the much coveted house trophy.

Visit our PE and Sports Premium Page to find out about competitions we take part in and typically do very well at.

Joe Wicks, The Body Coach

Joe is a former pupil of St Joseph's and provides an excellent model for our children.

We know that these events with Joe  have a long-lasting impact on children's attitudes to health and fitness.

In 2020, we were pleased to support Joe with his 24-hour PE challenge for BBC Children in Need. Our Head Teacher, who taught Joe, spoke to him live at 6am on Radio 2 to encourage him through his last few hours of the challenge. She shared with Joe photos of when he had been at St Joseph's, photos where he already showed his passion for sport and keeping fit and healthy.

Joe last visited us in December 2022. He ran a HIIT session on the playground for the whole school and then held a Q and A session for the Sports Leaders in Year Six and the Fitness Friends across the school.

We are proud of Joe and the role model he is for our community. He gives children time and space and they value the special memories created.

A Visit from a Paralympian - Ryan Raghoo

Ryan spent a morning with us, along with a sports coach.

The whole school enjoyed a boot-camp experience and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  Ryan was a superb role-model for our children with physical disabilities. 

 

 

 

 

 

Achieving Mastery in PE

So are our children healthy and developing a life-long commitment to their own fitness and wellbeing? We believe that they are.

The measure of success in PE is partly shown in the attitudes children display. We know that they understand what constitutes healthy eating and what they need to do to maintain a good level of fitness.

We also see their commitment to participation in sport, whether that than be in competition, lessons of on the playground at break-times. There is a real enthusiasm to be part of a team which goes out to sporting events.

In summary, we are leading our children towards healthy futures where physical exercise is intrinsic to lifestyle.