Physical Education in the Junior School

Physical Education in the Junior School is seen as an essential part of a child’s learning. Though a cliché, the saying "a healthy body means a healthy mind" is now being proven to be true.

The physical education lessons are delivered by trained specialists and all students in the Junior School have four periods of PE per week. The academic year is divided into 6 units of work with each unit being 5 or 6 weeks long. All the major areas of the National Curriculum are covered during these units of work with areas such as football, striking and fielding activities, ball skills lessons, gymnastics, swimming and fun-based, athletics activities forming an integral part of the BISC PE curriculum. They are also given a six week block to prepare them for their respective Junior Sports Day, held during March.

Within the PE curriculum particular importance is given to swimming; indeed it is the only activity which the children cover twice during the school year. The children swim during the first unit of work of the year and again at the year’s end when the weather is warmer.

In gymnastics the approach is very much based on the ‘educational’ model. This involves a great deal of floor work and apparatus work offering challenging but realistic tasks for the children. In these lessons, the children learn control and balance and explore what their bodies are capable of, more so than would be possible in conventional sports lessons.

Some lessons are skill-learning lessons where the children learn to throw, kick, catch, strike, run, work in teams and be competitive. Many and most of the lessons will end with a team game of some variety, incorporating the learnt skills, and this gives the children the opportunity to see how well they can work in a team environment.

All the PE staff at BISC employ a skills-learning ethos. The aim is to have children having either learnt a new skill or further developed one they already possess in each and every lesson. This is an ambitious target and can sometimes not be achieved but that is the aim and that will remain the same.