The Saint Martin’s Physical Education curriculum is designed to ensure students have ample physical literacy by the end of year 11 preparing them for adulthood.
What is physical Literacy? – “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engaging in physical activities for life” (IPLA, 2017)
At Saint Martin’s the PE department encourage students to pursue a healthy active life, whether this be in competitive sport or recreationally. Through a variety of engaging and challenging activities, we aim to develop their physical fitness, motor skills, teamwork, sportsmanship but also knowledge.
Our curriculum includes a wide range of activities such as team sports, individual sports and recreational activities such as fitness. These are selected to ensure we deliver a balanced curriculum enabling us to achieve all four strands of the national curriculum.
In addition to the physical aspect, our curriculum also emphasises the importance of lifelong fitness habits and healthy lifestyle choices. Students will learn about warm-up and cool-down techniques, short- and long-term effects of exercise and injury prevention strategies. This is through teacher talk alongside termly knowledge organisers.
Our PE curriculum is designed to be inclusive and adaptable, ensuring that all students can participate and succeed regardless of their skill level or physical abilities. We provide modifications and accommodations to meet the individual needs of our students, fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment.
Through our PE program, we aim to instil a love for physical activity and a lifelong commitment to health and wellness. Our dedicated PE teachers are passionate about inspiring our students achieving in sport and to lead active and healthy lives, both inside and outside of the classroom.
CORE PE
Throughout KS3 students are taught a plethora of sports which include football, netball, rugby, basketball, handball, badminton, fitness training, gymnastics, dance, cricket, athletics, softball and rounders. All of which aim to focus on the national curriculum to develop technique, tactics and knowledge.
At KS4 students will, at times, be given a little more flexibility to choose areas for participation with an emphasis on keeping moving and leading a healthy active lifestyle. Lessons include the traditional sports with more game time, but we also explore other areas such as ultimate frisbee, kinball, American football etc to explore and ignite a passion for a sport they may never have participated in. The PE department also have an amazing relationship with the local gym whereby we run a personal fitness block of lessons.
KS4 GCSE
Edexcel GCSE Physical Education is for students who have a theoretical interest in PE as well as enjoy playing sport. GCSE PE delves into the science, psychology and sociology of sport. Why the body reacts to exercise in the way it does, why people take part in certain sport and the need for a healthy active lifestyle. The course is a blend of both Theoretical and Practical aspects of Physical Education.
GCSE PE is majority theory; with exams worth 60% of the final grade, a coursework element that is worth 10% of the final grade and practical performance element worth 30% of students’ final mark.
Students’ theoretical knowledge is assessed by taking two written examinations in May of Year 11.
Students’ coursework is planning, completing and reviewing a 6-week training programme marked out of 20, with a focus on improving sporting performance.
Students’ Practical Performance in Physical Education will be assessed in throughout the 3-year course with an official moderation in April of year 11. Students will be assessed in 3 sports: 1 team, 1 individual with the final sport from either category. Sports are marked out of 35. It is advised that students are competing in at least one sport outside of school.
TRIPS
We also offer numerous sporting trips within the PE department.
PGL Netball weekend, PGL Football weekend and the infamous Ski Trip, which students can also use as one of their three sports in GCSE PE. In 2024 we have also added a biennial football/netball tour to Barcelona whereby students experience professional coaching along with fixtures from schools across Europe.
All our trips aimed to encourage students out of their comfort zone increasing personal development in an enjoyable environment.
Extra-Curricular opportunities
Through membership of the Hinckley & Bosworth School Sports Partnership, we participate in all extra-curricular competitions throughout the year and have practices on most evenings.
These include not only all major games such as football, netball, rugby and basketball, but also swimming, indoor athletics, summer athletics, tennis, cross country, cricket, softball and rounders.
We at Saint Martin’s boast a successful afterschool sporting programme with activities on most evening, leading to much success over recent years; Netball County Champions, Football County Finalist, Swimming County Champions, Indoor Athletics County Champions, Basketball County Champions are just some of our accolades. Our KS3 & KS4 netball teams have also competed at the Netball World Cup and finished 3rd in 2022 behind two teams from Dubai, an outstanding achievement!
