PE, SPORTS & physical activity
Our Intent
Handcross Primary School highly values PE, school sport and physical activity (PESSPA); it is embedded in our school ethos, curriculum and extra-curricular offer. We believe that when experienced in a safe, supportive and fun environment, is a vital contributor to children's physical, mental, emotional and social development and well-being. We want our children to recognise that PESSPA not only develops their bodies physically but encompasses the development of the whole child. It embeds values, such as honesty, determination and respect, as well as skills, such as communication, team work, measuring and self-reflection on individual and collaborative performance. Children will develop their physical literacy throughout primary school to become competent, confident and healthy movers at an early stage. We want children to develop a positive relationship with physical activity and sports, to build their motivation, confidence, physical competence and understanding of movement. We want to provide them with the better grounds to nurture and sustain their lifelong love and participation in physical activity and sport and know how to lead healthy, active lives.
Following the Chief Medical Officer's recommendation, we intend for all our children to engage in at least 60 active minutes a day, both at school and outside of school. We continue to maintain and develop this to ensure it is achieved for all our pupils, irrespective of their age, gender, ethnicity, background and needs. 60 active minutes a day is implemented through break times, Keep Fit, brain breaks, PE lessons and Travel Tracker. We aim to increase this further through the provision of a range of extra-curriculum activities, targeted interventions, after-school clubs and inter-school sporting events. All pupils in the school have equality of opportunity in terms of curriculum balance, curriculum time, use of resources, use of facilities and access to extra-curricular activities.
Curriculum
At Handcross Primary School, all children receive two hours of high-quality PE lessons a week. These are taught by our specialist PE coaches from South Coast Sports and class teachers. We follow the National Curriculum programme of study for PE to ensure all children reach the end of Key Stage points, including swimming.
Complete PE (an online resource) is used for planning, delivery and assessment of lessons to ensure all children are progressing within each lesson, topic and through the year groups. Our personalised long term plan (see below) ensures all year groups are taught a variety of topics/sports across the year (two or three topics each half-term). Skills are continually revisited and built upon across a wide range of focused activities and sports. In Early Years and Key Stage 1, children are taught through topics (e.g. balance, bat and ball games, gymnastics) to develop their fundamental movement skills. These are built upon in Key Stage 2 where such skills are applied to sports. We want children to have the opportunities to experience a broad range of sports to foster interests and encourage them to attend community clubs outside of school, as well as develop their physical literacy and leave primary school keen and excited to continue playing sports and try new ones in secondary school and later life.
Our PE Progression Map displays the journey we aim for our children to follow from Year R to Year 6. Lessons, activities and experiences are planned and delivered by staff, to ensure all children have opportunities to develop these key skills, before transitioning to secondary school.
Swimming
All children in Year 4 and Year 5 complete a series of ten consecutive lessons at Handcross Park's pool - Year 4 in the autumn term and Year 5 in the spring term. The lessons are delivered by qualified swimming instructors and focus on developing the children’s confidence in the water, awareness of how to be safe in the water, as well as their ability to swim using a range of strokes (front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly).
Additional catch-up sessions are offered in the Summer term for children in Year 5 and 6 to support them with meeting the end of Key Stage 2 National Curriculum swimming aims. Last year (2023-24), 77% of our Year 6 children met the aims. We are very proud of this and aim to increase it further this academic year.
The School Games Mark - Our Platinum Ranking
The School Games Mark is a government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward and recognise school’s engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark. It aims to make a positive and meaningful difference to the lives of children and young people through sport and physical activity, putting it at the heart of schools, and to provide children with the opportunity to enjoy and learn through competition to achieve their personal best.
We are delighted to announce that Handcross Primary School have achieved the School Games Platinum Mark Award for the 2023/24 academic year - this is the top award that can be achieved by schools. We previously achieved the Platinum Award in 2018-19 and 2021-22. Our award is upheld until summer 2025.
Sports Events / Mid Sussex Active (MSA)
Sports events are incredibly valued by our staff, children, families and the community. They are an important part of our PE and sport offer and a host of staff members put in a lot of time and effort to plan and organise the events so our children engage in fun, memorable experiences. We believe that sports events are inclusive and we make it our mission for all children in Year 2-6 to have the opportunity to participate in at least sports event a year - many children attending more than one. We know that sports events not only get the children active for several hours but they also develop their skills, interest and love of sports and they can encourage them to join community clubs.
Mid Sussex Active (MSA) is an organisation which supports schools with provision of festivals and competitions, professional development and providing community club links. They provide a range of festivals and competitions throughout the school year, within the local area. The festivals focus on encouraging less-active and/or less competitive children to try new sports and develop skills, including those with SEN and/or social, emotional and mental health needs. Events include: boccia, hockey, netball, football, tag rugby and Inclusion festivals. The competitions are where children get to compete against other schools, allowing them to apply their skills from lessons and clubs in a more competitive environment (i.e. through matches and tournaments). Events include: tag rugby, hockey, cross country, netball and football.
Last year, we attended 25 sports events, including hosting some 'friendly' netball and football matches and our annual NEARS Sports Day. 98% of Year 2-6 children have had the opportunity to attend at least one sports festival or competition and 61% of children attended two or more.
All sports events are reported by the staff and children. Please see our PE News page for more information and images about our previous events.
Extra-curricular Clubs
We provide a wide range of sports and physical activity clubs which are tailored to the children's interests. They are run by South Coast Sports, Teaching Assistants and external companies. They include: netball, football, dance, multi-skills, gardening club and outdoor club. All clubs run for 60 minutes which contribute towards children's 60 active daily minutes.
Visit our Clubs page to view our full list of morning and after-school clubs for each term.
Other Events and Achievements
Pupils are actively encouraged to share achievements from sports/physical activities that they are involved in outside of school. These are celebrated in their classrooms, in Celebration Assemblies, on our school's social media sites and on the PE noticeboard in school.
Each year, we plan for additional sporting experiences/opportunities to take place to excite and inspire the children such as dance workshops, JOLF Day (Junior golf), visits from professional athletics and outdoor and adventurous activity (OAA) trips.
