Sport & Physical Education

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At Accrington Academy, we believe that Physical Education is fundamental for all of our students. The delivery of high quality PE allows students to develop in areas such as physical health and fitness, as well as developing their problem-solving skills, teamwork, leadership skills, and tactical and strategic knowledge. It allows students to build on their confidence and self-efficacy, whilst reducing stress and strengthening peer relationships. It is therefore clear that PE plays a vital role in the lifelong development of a child; physically, mentally and socially.

We operate a 3 year KS3 and a 2 year KS4 and a 2 year KS5. Each Key stage works to the same philosophy and principles.

Hundreds of United Learning teachers and leaders have been involved in developing the United Learning Curriculum as a core academic curriculum, founded on these key principles:

Entitlement – We believe that Physical Education should be inclusive of all students and pupils should have access to high quality PE lessons despite their ability. We understand that every student is unique, and all students will be given the opportunity to progress and learn during their PE lessons. Students will be provided with attainable goals, as well as being challenged to achieve above and beyond. We operate the UL Physical Education and Health Curriculum and Assessment Framework (PEHCAF) that looks to ensure all students make progress and have positive experiences within PE.

Mastery – We want all students to achieve a full understanding of the knowledge and skills specified in the Curriculum for each year, and teaching should not move on until this is achieved. This is demonstrated through the recurrence of sports throughout the key stages.

Stability – We won’t constantly amend the Curriculum: while we should make occasional adjustments in the light of feedback and experience, we will aim for stability over many years, so that teachers can develop expertise, and we constantly build assessments and teaching materials to support the Curriculum.

Concepts not context – The Curriculum is intended as a concise specification of knowledge and content to be taught and learned; it is for schools and teachers to decide how to teach and bring it to life.

Our PE curriculum keeps our students healthy through participation through the subject, while teaching them the skills needed for a variety of sports, knowledge of rules and regulations, leadership skills, and the benefits of a healthy active lifestyle. As part of the curriculum all students get the opportunity to complete a leadership award; UL Fit to Lead as well as the chance to achieve the Sports Leaders UK Level 1 accredited qualification. We believe a student who is physically and mentally healthy is more likely to be prepared to meet the daily challenges of living in our society, and is more likely to make appropriate choices about lifestyles in later life.

With thousands of pupils across United Learning following the same curriculum, we have been able to collaborate to devleop rigorous assessments in our subject area. These are summative assessments which allow pupils to demonstrate their growing understanding of PE and enable teachers to assess the impact of their teaching. These summative assessments are typically taken three times a year, allowing teachers to focus on formative assessment from lesson to lesson.

We are particularly conscious of the role that literacy and vocabulary plays in unlocking the whole curriculum. Within the PE department our teachers explicitly teach the meaning of subject-specific language, which is embedded from KS3 where students look to develop their basic Anatomy and Physiology language. Knowledge organisers are also used to provide students with key information that they are expected to learn and recall with fluency, enabling them to develop their understanding of key concepts outside of their lessons.

The culmination of our PE and Health curriculum is that pupils leave our school with the confidence and intelligence to thrive. We know our pupils as individuals which enables us to provide curriculum guidance and careers guidance throughout their time with us. We expect all pupils to leave our school with the grades required to progress to their desired destination, and the character required to flourish once they get there. We believe that Physical Education is more than just teaching sport. It is a subject that focuses on developing skills and habits to ensure all young people have the knowledge and confidence to make appropriate lifelong health and wellbeing choices.

By teaching our curriculum well, and delivering education with character, we bring out the best in everyone.

Structure

Our curriculum structure works through a two-week timetable where every day has 5 x 1 hour lessons plus a registration / tutor time at the start of the day..

To find out more about our curriculum please contact our Vice Principal in charge of Quality of Education Mrs Christine Williams on Christine.williams@accrington-academy.org or see our Curriculum policy.

Our guided choices booklets also give us more detail on the programme of Guided choices from KS3 into KS4.