PE & Sports
| STEM |
... at Bluecoat...
Intent
We aim to guide children as they master the fundamental skills within movement and physical activity. We take a holistic approach to physical education, teaching the whole child and exposing them to a range of physical activities that develop transferable skills, knowledge and attitudes that will stay with them far beyond their time at Bluecoat.
We want to create children who appreciate the value of being physically active and can articulate the benefits this provides for a healthy, active and playful lifestyle, understanding that being physically active is a lifestyle choice rather than the process of playing a sport. Through the combination of our Physical Education curriculum and our extra curricular offer, we aim to create children who show sporting behaviour and a sense of fair play, experience success, feel a sense of belonging within a sporting community and understand how sport and physical activity can be a uniting force in the wider world.
Implementation
Positive Physical Health
The school offers a varied and strong sports programme, including:
Sequenced units provided by Complete PE, giving pupils comprehensive and exciting PE lessons which all pupils are able to access, and in which all are able to thrive and excel.
The school provides all pupils with one hour of timetabled PE per week (within the curriculum only) and have an additional 15 minutes per day of 'physical blast'.
We have a number of staff and external companies who provide extra-curricular sporting opportunities in the form of after school clubs. These include Goal Getters, Boys Football, Girls Football, Netball, Multi Sports, Yoga and Bat and Ball Games.
The school places a strong emphasis on engaging pupils in leading, managing and officiating School Games activity. The school Play Leaders promote health & wellbeing, lead break/lunch-time activity and support sport for all. Sports Ambassadors take on the role of the 'sports crew' and meet every half-term. They all have individual roles and responsibilities to support the planning and development of School Games.
A number of external coaches, clubs and leisure providers support the delivery of school sport and physical activity through a range of opportunities for young people. In addition, the school has established active links with several local community sports clubs/providers; 15 as a signposting function and 10 formalised links where the school has regular communication with them.
The sport offer at the school is supplemented by strong CPD opportunities. During 2018/19, three teaching assistants completed a 10 week level 5 PE specialism training course and there is a strong ethos of learning from each other within school. The Devon School Games and local SSCO offer provides additional CPD which the school accesses at events/festivals.
The school engages with Facebook and Twitter very well, promoting all the aspects of their School Games activity regularly, and this is also supplemented by school sport updates in Parent Mail.
Impact
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With a huge amount of young people competing in local inter-school competitions this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.
Swimming
Swimming Provision at Bluecoat
There are many benefits of learning to swim. Swimming keeps your child’s heart and lungs healthy, improves strength and flexibility, increases stamina and even improves balance and posture. Swimming is inclusive; children of any age or ability can take part and it is more accessible for children with additional needs than almost any other sport. Swimming provides challenges and rewards accomplishments, which helps children to become self-confident and believe in their abilities.
Most importantly, swimming can save your child’s life. Drowning is still one of the most common causes of accidental death in children, so being able to swim is an essential life-saving skill.
At Bluecoat we are lucky enough to have a fully qualified Level 2 swimming instructor with over 13 years experience. Along with other members of staff, including class teachers, Sue Tyrrell ensures that the swimming lessons at Bluecoats are not only of a high quality, but are also great fun too!
Using games such as 'Simon Says', bubble blowing activities and even water polo, Sue supports the children in gradually building their confidence in the water.
Through using ability based groupings and a high ratio of staff to children, the quality of provision and the amount of time children spend in the water is maximised.
Torrington 1610 Pool
The National Curriculum states that all schools must provide swimming instruction either in Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 and in particular, pupils should be taught to:
swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
use a range of strokes effectively, for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke
perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
In addition, Bluecoat follow the Devon Swim 100 curriculum which provides a broad range of water based skills and knowledge, supporting children reach a new minimum standard and expectation of swimming 100 metres by the end of Key Stage 2. The programme was developed by the Devon PEDPASS team in response to headteachers’ request for a more robust swimming provision. It aims to improve the outcomes of school swimming by setting a new minimum standard and expectation of all children swimming 100 metres by the end of Key Stage 2.
Devon Swim 100Schools are required to publish how many Year 6 pupils have met the national curriculum requirements relating to swimming and water safety.
Our results for the 2022 academic year are:
62% of pupils have reached the National Standard for school swimming. Can perform self-rescue techniques and basic recue techniques on others. Can swim various strokes comfortably at 50m or more in most cases.
16.4% have not reached the National Standard for school swimming required at the end of KS2 where they can tread water, perform a self rescue and be confident in water out of depth. They however have not comfortably swam 25m using various strokes.
21.4% of swimmers are still either non swimmers or swimmers who can do upto 10 metres on a very basic level. All can do a safe entry in shallow water
It is important to note that this cohort have had the least amount of opportunities to have school swimming lessons due to COVID lock down and the temporary closure of the local swimming pool.
Awards
Sports Mark Gold Award
We are delighted to announce that we achieved the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2018/19 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.