Physical Education

Sports and staying active are a huge part of life at Pelham. The development of physical skills and their accompanying mental and emotional skills, are an important aspect of a child's education. Whilst teaching children practical skills such as balance, agility and aim, we also develop the children's ability to cope with and overcome defeat, cope with perceived injustices, develop their skills of communication and recognise the positive feelings which come with exercise and fresh air.       

Whilst we recognise and praise the sporting achievements of every child, we also hold sportsmanship in high esteem. In addition to trying their best and striving to win, we have also embedded 'REFSPECT' which is an anti-bullying code aiming to remove negative behaviour directed at officials, participants and other spectators. REFSPECT consists of six spirit values; honesty, determination, teamwork, self belief, passion and respect. This is promoted in all our PE lessons and is therefore emulated at Merton borough tournaments where at every event, each school votes for another who is showing the spirit values throughout the day and Pelham has been successful in achieving the overall REFSPECT award for the academic year. To celebrate this as a school, we choose one child from every class to receive the Pelham Sportsmanship Award and medal, once a term, who we believe demonstrates these qualities and can be a role model to others as well. We are proud that all our work has been recognised by the award of the MSSP Platinum Sports Mark for achieving a gold standard for the last six consecutive years.

Every year we enter Merton borough tournaments in a wide range of sports including football (girls and boys), cricket, tennis, tag-rugby, cricket, netball, swimming, basketball and gymnastics. While we take our sports seriously at tournament level by entering our best teams, we also recognise that every child should have the opportunity to represent his or her school in a sporting competition during the primary years as this is the time when a love of sport can be ignited. For this reason, we also enter a number of inclusive tournaments for children who like to be involved but respond better to a less competitive atmosphere, as well as playing a number of friendly games against other local schools in many sports. The number of sporting events we are involved in gives all our children opportunities to play sports regardless of ability or experience- every child who wishes to represent their school, will have the opportunity to do so before they leave in Year 6.

Aside from competitive games, we promote sports through a variety of early morning and after-school clubs at the school, including; tag-rugby, football, basketball, netball, dance, tennis, running, multi skills, karate, gymnastics and yoga clubs. In addition, to promoting girls in sport, we also hold a weekly girls' sports club, which is hugely popular as it gives the girls a chance to try out a whole range of sports in a fun environment!

It is not just in PE and clubs, that we promote physical exercise. We believe that children should be taught what it means to live a healthy, active lifestyle and we regularly celebrate achievements of our children and staff, outside of school, within our assemblies and displays. The children also benefit from PE-inspired lessons, brain breaks and activities, on a daily basis.

 At Pelham we want all pupils to:

• be able to work co-operatively in a team.
• develop and understand the importance of resilience and growth mindset.
• be able to use and apply sportsmanship attitudes and qualities.
• have an opportunity to participate in events and competitions, representing their school.
• understand the benefits of exercise and sports on their mental health.
• understand the benefits of exercise and sports in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
• have an opportunity to develop their leadership skills.
• be able to develop and progress their skills, regardless of level or ability.
• have access to a full, wide ranging and inclusive curriculum.
• be able to experience and develop skills, which are both fine motor and gross motor based.
• understand the lifelong importance of being active.

To see a full breakdown of what we intend to teach through PE, and how we intend to do it, please click below.

PE Intent Statement

Swimming

We are hugely proud of our swimming provision at Pelham and are constantly working in conjunction with our local swimming centre and borough to provide children with high-quality swimming lessons, as part of their PE curriculum. 

Recently, we have implemented the intensive swimming program which involves children swimming everyday for two weeks for an hour instead of every week for half an hour, as we previously offered. We found it to have a significant impact on the children's rate of progress, and their love of swimming- our students were clamouring to get to the part of their school day when they could go swimming! The program is for children in Year 3 who complete 2 two-week swimming blocks, once in the Spring Term and once in the Summer Term. 

By the end of Year 3, those children who have not reached the Government stipulated targets to swim 25 metres using one stroke or more, and perform a safe self-rescue, will complete a further two-week block of swimming lessons in Year 4. 

Every year, we attend the Merton Swimming Gala. We have been hugely successful in the previous galas, winning last year Borough Finals where we had two children achieved a gold medal in their individual event and our Boys' and Girl's Relay team won gold as well. Three child secured silver, and two more celebrated a bronze medal! It was an amazing day with such great success. 

The children love this event and have a fantastic time. We were so proud of their effort, commitment and sportsmanship, and cannot wait for the next event! 

Curriculum Guidance

At Pelham, children enjoy two 60 minute PE lessons per week, where one lesson is indoor whilst the second lesson is outside. Working together with the Merton School Sport Partnership (MSSP), we continually develop our PE Scheme of Work to ensure that all our pupils receive high quality PE lessons in line with the latest teaching pedagogy. 

To see what the current curriculum looks like for this year, 2022-23, click on the link below.

PE Curriculum Overview

For a detailed description of the skills addressed in each Key Stage, click here to download the National Curriculum for PE. 

Sports Premium

Every year, schools receive PE and sport premium funding to promote additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer.

To read about how we have used this funding over the last year and our plans for the current year, click on the links below.

Premium Sports Funding 2021-22

Purpose of the funding

We have to spend the sport funding on improving our provision of PE and sport, but have some freedom to choose how we do this.

Possible uses of the funding include:

• Hiring specialist PE teachers or qualified sports coaches to work alongside primary teachers when teaching PE
• Providing cover for staff to take children to Borough/Development Competitions and Inclusive Festivals
• New or additional sport clubs
• Paying for professional development opportunities in PE/sport
• Providing cover to release teachers for professional development in PE/sport
• Running sport competitions, or increasing participation in the school games
• Buying quality assured professional development modules or material for PE/sport
• Providing places for pupils on after school sport clubs and residential visits