Curriculum Intent Statement

Physical Education at Whitworth Community High School provides students with sporting opportunities both in and out of school through an inclusive programme that aims to foster a lifetime of commitment. Physical Education will also instil in students: knowledge, skills, and values to make appropriate physical activity choices to integrate exercise into their lives. 

Within the department we cover the national curriculum aims below utilising a range of sporting activities and schemes of learning: 

• use a range of tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in direct competition through team and individual games.
• develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports.
• perform dances using advanced dance techniques within a range of dance styles and forms.
• take part in outdoor and adventurous activities which present intellectual and physical challenges and be encouraged to work in a team, building on trust and developing skills to solve problems, either individually or as a group.
• analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best.
• take part in competitive sports and activities outside school through community links or sports clubs.

After making the transition from primary to secondary school students embark on their learning journey in Physical Education and we encourage students to reach their potential in a wide variety of activities. This ensures that students thrive within their lessons and receive a high level of challenge. Enjoyment is at the core of all lessons through engaging tasks and a variety of teaching approaches. Through year seven to nine students will partake in a range of sports developing both skills, knowledge and tactics that will enable them to excel within competitive situations. In year 8 and 9 a “theoretical” lesson is also incorporated that covers healthy eating, first aid and other topics that prepares students for examination subjects. Across the years, transferable skills will be developed and students are given opportunities to build on the fundamentals developed early on. Across school resilience is a key message and is therefore promoted within the competitive elements of Physical Education. Within each sporting unit students are expected to make progress based on their starting point and this enables staff to set high aspirations. Within Key Stage 3 the Ofsted research review has informed our assessment framework which takes into consideration the three pillars of progression:

1. Motor Competence - a person’s ability to execute a variety of motor actions, including the coordination of fine and gross motor skills.
2. Fundamental Movement Skill- a set of basic, learned motor patterns that do not occur naturally including: locomotor skills, stability skills and manipulation skills.
3. Healthy Participation- providing knowledge relevant to healthy participation within different domains.

As well as having the opportunity to study Physical Education as an option, all students will take part in one hour of core PE per week. The aim of this is to develop a love of sport that fosters a lifetime commitment thus creating healthy individuals within society. Within year 10 and 11 students participate in a range of sports through competitive lessons that encourage them to use the skills developed previously. Within core PE lessons students will also develop interpersonal skills such as leadership, teamwork and communication which can be transferable across many other subjects. Students are not assessed within this area of Physical Education however there is still a requirement to show high levels of engagement and effort. 

At Key Stage 4 students can choose to study Physical Education through the options process, once selected they are then guided to either the GCSE or V-CERT course. Throughout the two years a range of theoretical topics are covered in both courses including; The Skeletal System, Muscular System and other body systems. Students also look at applying the different systems to health and fitness activities as well as exploring them in practical ways. As an example, students undertake a practical experiment whereby they dissect a heart, providing students with the opportunity to further develop their knowledge in a fun and exciting way. These units provide opportunities to link Physical Education to other subjects including Maths and Science. Throughout the different units staff provide links between the content and future jobs, this challenges students' thinking and inspires them to achieve at the highest level. Units are taught in order of the specification but this allows students to build on knowledge in a structured way allowing them to make links between the different body systems. The assessment criteria for both the GCSE and V-CERT qualifications differ but our curriculum is centred around the holistic development of all students; providing them with extended opportunities, whilst allowing them to make progress towards a level 2 qualification.

Extra-Curricular Programme 

At Whitworth Community High School, we understand the value of a high quality extra-curricular programme. Students can develop many personal skills such as teamwork and leadership whilst also experiencing competitive situations. The programme we offer has two main aims. Firstly, we aim to offer a wide variety of activities that will encourage all students to be involved: activities range from Trampolining to Football and Dodgeball to Fitness. Secondly, we aim to make sure that each club leads to a competitive fixture or tournament against other schools so that students can learn other skills such as learning to accept winning and losing. Over the past few years, we have not only competed regularly at local level but have also competed at a regional and national level. All information including club timetable, fixtures, results, student successes can be found on the PE Twitter page @WCHS_PE.