Physical Education

Sport and physical education is at the heart of life at Black Firs, including Dance, Gymnastics Outdoor Pursuits and Adventurous activity. We use the word ‘sport’ but it implies all these areas. At Black Firs we have an ‘everyone opts in’ culture. We always strive to be the best we can be, we are comfortable with competition and we have a clearly owned and articulated philosophy for why we invest in sports.

We are very lucky to have very well qualified Staff in School – ECB cricket coaches, ASA swimming coaches, FA coaches, RU coaches, BCU kayaking instructors and UKCC netball coaches; we don’t have to buy these skills in. We take the children swimming for three terms and for two years to ensure they are very competent. We also use some of our funding to develop kayaking in School; all our Year 5 and Year 6 children complete BCU certification. Some of our grant funding is used to off-set the cost of the adventurous activities we do at Conway with all junior children. Participation for Conway from Year 3 to Year 6 is 97%.

Sport at Black Firs is important as it’s great fun and it develops positive healthy lifestyles. Teaching sport gives us a context to discuss what this means.

Sport at Black Firs

PE and Sport continue to be strengths of the school. We use a variety of sports as a mechanism to deliver national curriculum physical education knowledge & skills both in terms of teaching and learning in lessons and in inter-school competitions. As a result, the school is seen as a leader amongst the local community, with members of staff taking on the responsibility of organising many of the competitions. We are an active member of the local Congleton Schools Sports and Sandbach Sports Partnership.

We have competed in all available competitions this year, both at town, partnership and inter-partnership, regional & national level. The children have achieved great things.

Achievement in swimming continues to be very good with the large majority of children able to swim at least 25m by the end of Year 6. Safe self-rescue in different water-based situations including inland kayaking & sea-based dingy sailing is also prioritised. We have some outstanding swimmers, many of whom are also club swimmers.

High quality teaching and learning results in “strength in depth” when competing in competitions. Staff continue to provide an ever-widening selection of after school clubs which are well attended by the students. Several ex-pupils are also delivering activities such as netball and multi-skills, under the guidance of the teachers. This is particularly pleasing as they are acting as good role models to the children, as well as developing their own coaching skills. The school is very well resourced in order to ensure high quality P.E. can be delivered throughout.

Participation in out of school clubs

We have an excellent staff who are well qualified and deliver a range of sporting opportunities. There are 13 after school clubs running 3.30pm – 4.30pm in any term; 75% are sport based. Participation during the taught curriculum is 100%; participation at after school clubs is 70% of juniors; not an issue but we always want to encourage more!

We do have real issues December through January, when it becomes too dark to run clubs after school. We are experimenting with a portable floodlight; these could be a real advantage.

The all-weather playing surface has massively improved both accessibility and the quality of the sport played. As well as football and rugby, hockey has now been introduced. The surface enables us to coach and play more cricket and tennis during the summer. Playtimes & lunchtimes are also much improved with access to the playing field all year round.

Our Physical Education Mindmap

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