PE @ St Ben’s

At St Benedict’s we are proud of the PE provision we are able to offer our students. Sadly in the past, many children have left school thinking that PE is only for the fastest, or the fittest or the strongest of people. Therefore, our intent is to turn that mind-set on its head. We firmly believe that PE should be fun, engaging and active so that no child ever feels that way. We want children to move their bodies, develop new skills, learn new sports and learn to develop into healthy adults.  We are firmly committed to ensuring every child accesses 30 minutes of physical activity a day at school and we offer this in a variety of ways, including PE, active learning, break-time and lunchtime activities as well as a wide range of extra-curricular clubs.

PE Curriculum

Developing the whole child through PE

At St Benedict's C of E VA Junior School we use Real PE to give EVERY child the physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, Sport and life. This unique, child centred approach transforms how we teach PE to include, challenge and support EVERY child. Real PE is supported by Jasmine – your real learning platform. This teaching and learning aid has been designed to help bring lessons to life for the children in a fun and creative way.

You can view a selection of the lesson plans that we use, see the exciting games we play and activities we do to develop the pupil’s fundamental movement skills, in addition to their personal, social, cognitive, creative skills by clicking the links below.

 

DASH

Before the school day has even begun, we offer all children the opportunity to take part in our morning club known as DASH. This is run by local sports coaches. DASH is a physical club aimed at getting children to burn some energy before they start their day. They play team games, invasion games and generally have a great time. Your child is welcome to attend each morning. However, we do ask that the children are dropped off between 8 and 8:05 am. We cannot accept children after this time due to the coaches organising the sessions and late comers disrupting the activities. Please ensure that your child has been accepted into the session before leaving them as there is no adult supervision for your child until 8:30 should you arrive late.

Leagues

We are proud of our children and want to encourage them in their chosen sports. We currently belong to several area leagues. These include:

• Football
• Girls’ Football
• Netball
• Rounders

After school clubs

We are fortunate to be able to offer a wide range of extra-curricular clubs. These have included:

• Football
• Netball
• Cross Country
• Dance
• Yoga
• Chess
• Glee Club
• Gardening Club
• Athletics
• Rounders
• Cricket
• Tag Rugby
• Multi-skills
• Drama
• Film Club
• Eco Club

Swimming

Our goal is to encourage water safety and a basic competence in the water. We aim to train children to be able to swim a distance of 25M. The children have swimming lessons at Strode Swimming pool in Street. Currently, we take Year 5 children during the autumn term, Year 4 children in the spring term and Year 3 during the summer term. 

Enrichment

As well as curriculum PE we are keen to offer the children as many physical experiences as possible. These vary from year to year but have included:

Cricket Coaching

Mindfulness

Yoga

Skipping training

Running training

Year 5 healthy eating program

In addition to this, we have purchased two Active wall units which the children use on a rota basis.

We are also lucky enough to have our own all-weather artificial pitch, which the children can use at break and lunch on a rota basis. Please note – children must wear trainers on the astro (no studs or moulds thank you).

Sports Leaders

During each academic year, we train some of our energetic Year 5 and Year 6 children to become Sports Leaders. They get training from sports coaches and learn how to plan, organise and run a sports activity. They use their knowledge to run sports activities at break-time and lunch-time. Furthermore, they help run the events at the lower school sports day.  Our Sports Leaders also host sports sessions for St. John's pupils throughout the year, including their whole-school Sports Day.

Residential trips

Every spring, our Year 5 children embark on a residential trip to Osmington Bay in Dorset. They take part in outside learning such as team building, den building, hiking and many other active things.

Next, the Year 6 children travel to London where they have a jam packed two days of exploring and learning about the wonderful sites our capital has to offer.

Forest school

We offer outdoor learning to all children throughout the year. The majority of our staff has a Forest School qualification so we are able to offer high quality learning. Our outside area is still in its infancy yet we have been planting trees and shrubs which over time will create a more forest like feel. However, we have a great purpose- built outdoor classroom and conservation area and lots of wildlife that the children can explore.

Gardening

We are aware of the benefit of being outside and many of our pupils relish the opportunity to be at one with nature.  Gardening offers them the chance to engage in purposeful physical activity with clear end results and has proven to be very rewarding and calming for many of our children.  In the past two years we have developed a World Garden (Phase One was a growing garden including a polytunnel and raised beds for each year group), as well as four 'raised beds for happy heads' in different locations in Glastonbury (for which different year groups have responsibility).  Every child in school has also helped to plant hedging inside our perimeter fence with the goal of improving our environment.  In September 2022 work began on Phase Two of our World Garden (The Peace Garden).  We have already seen the wellbeing benefits of gardening upon our pupils.

PE kit

Please ensure your child has a suitable, named PE kit in school. This should comprise:

A white polo/ T- shirt,

Blue shorts or skirt,

Dark jogging bottoms – for the colder months,

Plimsolls/trainers,

Socks (especially if your child wears tights to school),

A PE bag to keep things together.

Awards

We are incredibly proud to be have been recognised for the work we are doing in helping young people to be active. In 2022, we were awarded the School Games Gold award and, prior to this, we came runners-up in the Somerset Sports Awards in 2019-20 after being nominated by SASP for our excellent work in Physical Education.