Physical Education

Why is physical education important and relevant to our students?

PE at Sprowston will equip students with the tools to pursue a healthy, active lifestyle.  They will develop the physical, mental skills and social skills that will help them in any future pathway they choose.  They will also gain valuable experience in leadership, coaching, officiating and volunteering.  The PE staff will work hard to offer our students the best experience we can, and contribute to the development of hard-working people who make a positive contribution to their communities and families.  Our aim is to develop holistic PE students.

Physical Education at KS3

We follow the national curriculum at KS3, with students learning how to overcome opponents, develop their technique and improve their performance.  They have opportunities to analyse their own performance and show improvement.  They also have many opportunities to take part in competitive sports and activities outside of lessons.

Our KS3 curriculum is designed to help students build their skills, knowledge and performance through the key stage.  They will build upon core skills, develop advanced skills and build tactical awareness through a broad and balanced experience that is sequenced to reinforce previous work. Students will develop their physical capacity and self-confidence across a number of activities by being more independent and officiating and coaching peers.  Students will experience a number of team and individual activities that will test students in a number of different ways: the demands of a swimming unit, is vastly different from a football unit, that is in turn vastly different to a table tennis unit.  We signpost our vast extra-curricular programme to students in lessons to encourage their further physical, mental and social development.

Physical Education at KS4

All students have one hour of core PE on their timetable and following a funded Sport England project to revamp our KS4 core curriculum, students now choose what they want to study from a programme of choices aimed at developing their health, wellbeing, enjoyment and performance.

Students can also opt for either of the examination courses of GCSE PE or Sports Studies at KS4.  The different demands of the two courses means that we can offer a good variety of challenges at KS4.  KS4 PE options students will work hard towards goals, and learn to be agile as a learner in different contexts.  There are theoretical, practical and coursework assessments in both courses.  This variety means that our learners have to develop into the holistic student, who can produce under pressure in a range of contexts.  This is highly relevant to the modern world of work and gives them a solid foundation for whatever pathway they choose to follow.

Physical Education at KS5

At KS5 we offer the A-Level PE or Cambridge Technical Level 3 in sport and physical activity courses.  This enables us to offer different types of learners the opportunity to develop their academic understanding and pursue a career pathway in sport-related industries.  Both pathways bring academic, practical and coursework performance challenges.  The varied challenges and rigour of both courses help shape agile and adaptable learners that are ready for the next step into further education or into the workforce. We have had a number of our students go on and pursue careers in PE and sport, with one ex-A-Level PE student, now a key member of our PE department.

What will Students Learn in Physical Education?

See the curriculum map for a full breakdown of what is taught from Y7-13

How are students assessed in Physical Education?

At KS3 students are assessed across three strands for each activity area they study; ‘Head, Heart, Hands’.  The ‘Head’ grade looks at student’s cognitive understanding, their feedback skills, their verbal skills and peer coaching.  The ‘Heart’ grade looks at a student's work rate, their attitude, how well they cope with adversity, and how good a teammate they are.  The ‘Hands’ grade looks at a student’s technical skills and student’s application of skills in isolation and under pressure in competitive situations.  We gather evidence for the three assessment strands throughout a unit both formatively and summatively. We believe this approach assesses the holistic PE student who has to develop high quality skills in all three strands, rather than just being assessed solely as a practical performer.
For KS4 core PE, all students get an ATL grade for the way they have worked in their chosen units.  For the KS4 and KS5 exam students, they are assessed in a range of ways, from practical work, verbal performance, and coursework material.  Practical work is developed over the two years of each course and assessed at Easter time of Y11 or Y13.  We use past paper questions for  written assessment to help prepare students for the language, structure and demands of the exam boards.  This ‘flight simulation’ helps students to develop their exam and study skills, so that they can tackle written assessments with confidence.

PE News, Sports Clubs &  Fixtures

Clubs & Activities

SCA Sports Day 2019 Yr 7-8

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SCA Sports Dinner 2019

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SCA Sports Day 2019 Yr 9-10

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