Physical Education

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”

Billie Jean King

The Physical Education curriculum at Mayfield Grammar School aims to support all students to become physically literate through an exciting variety of high-quality physical activities that build the character, knowledge and resilience required to empower all students to lead happy, healthy and active lives.

Our curriculum is designed to maximise engagement, enjoyment and inclusiveness. We also engender an understanding of what it means to have a healthy lifestyle – which include physical activity, developing social skills and how PE can impact emotional well-being positively throughout Key Stage 3 and in Core PE at Key Stage 4. We offer a broad curriculum throughout all years with every student receiving four hours of Physical Education over the fortnight.

The intent of our high-quality Physical Education curriculum will:

Inspire all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities as well as fostering sporting excellence.
Promote a positive attitude through enjoyment that leads to a life-long commitment to sport and physical activity.
Develop students’ knowledge and leadership skills that can be adapted an adopted into other aspects of their school and wider life.
Enable students to feel they belong as part of a team, believe in their healthy potential, and thrive physically, socially and emotionally.

This intent is delivered through a Coach/Performer/Participator assessment policy which enables all round student success in different areas of Physical Education.

Key Concepts

The Physical Education curriculum at MGSG has been designed to ensure that all pupils:

Develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities.
Are physically active for sustained periods of time.
Engage in competitive sports and activities.
Lead healthy, active lives.

Key Skills

Throughout the students Physical Education journey at Mayfield Grammar, students gain confidence in applying more advanced skills, showing accurate technique and consistency within both isolated drills and competitive situations. As they progress, students will further develop an ability to evaluate and assess movements and sequences to produce refined outcomes.

Leadership opportunities are facilitated to improve communication skills, teamwork, organisational skills and confidence. Students will be encouraged to lead warm-ups and some sports related drills as well as score and officiate within a range of different activities.

Theoretical content is re-visited every year in a more formal environment where each year group has a theoretical focus. Their knowledge in these areas are taught though practical lessons and students are expected to link the key content to sporting examples. The GCSE course is structured to enhance learning by grouping each component together to ensure fluidity and encourage recall of key terms.

The coursework element complements the learning and analytical teaching received from Year 7 and creatives a practical vision of the application of training to an individual’s performance and wellbeing.

The PE curriculum and extra-curricular program is progressive and allows each pupil to flourish.

What is taught?

Core PE

Core Learning Journey

Year 7

In Year 7, the objective is to create a love for physical education by experiencing a wide variety of different activities and developing respectful relationships, and not shying away from a challenge.

In Year 7 student explore Physical Literacy within the concept categories of:

Confidence
Competence
Knowledge and Understanding
Motivation

In Year 7 students will have the opportunity to:

Use a range of tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in direct competition through team and individual games whilst taking part in basketball, cricket, football, netball, rounders and tag-rugby.
Develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports whilst taking part in multi-skills, athletics and trampolining.
Perform dances using advanced dance techniques within a range of dance styles. 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 and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best.
Have the opportunity to take part in competitive sports and activities outside school through community links or sports clubs.
Students’ theoretical knowledge is assessed through teacher questioning during lessons Teacher, pupil and self-assessments are all a focal part of the students learning in physical education, this occurs throughout the year.
Students take part in a number of Inter-House competitions.

Year 8

Year 8 is designed to broaden sporting experiences and embed skills, such as applying tactics and strategies into a range of sports.

In Year 8 student explore Personal Development within the concept categories of:

Communication
Resilience
Emotional Intelligence
Intra-personal Skills

Students build on skills and knowledge gained in Year 7. They have the opportunity to access a wide variety of extra-curricular activities to embed the knowledge they have learned within their lessons.

Key areas of focus in Year 8 allow students to have the opportunity to:

Use a range of tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in direct competition through team and individual games whilst taking part in basketball, cricket, football, netball, rounders and hockey
Develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports whilst taking part in fitness, athletics and trampolining
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.
Have the opportunity to take part in competitive sports and activities outside school through community links or sports clubs.
Students’ theoretical knowledge is assessed through teacher questioning during lessons. Teacher, pupil and self-assessments are all a focal part of the students’ learning in physical education, this occurs throughout the year.
Students take part in a number of Inter House competitions during Year 8.

In Year 8 students are set based on their ability. Top set students experience GCSE practical lessons.

Year 9

Students build on skills and knowledge gained in Years 7 & 8. They have the opportunity to access a wide variety of extra-curricular activities to embed the knowledge they have learned within their lessons. Students apply more advanced skills in their lessons, using GCSE terminology consistently and effectively. Students are set based on their ability. Top set students experience GCSE practical lessons.

In Year 9 student explore Character Development within the concept categories of:

Sporting Values
Redefining Competition
Problem Solving
Power of Competition

Key areas of focus in Year 9 allow students to have the opportunity to:

Use a range of tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in direct competition through team and individual games whilst taking part in basketball, cricket, football, netball and rounders.
Develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports whilst taking part in athletics and trampolining.
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.
Explore leadership within Sport Education.
Students take part in regular Inter-House competitions throughout the year.
Students’ theoretical knowledge is assessed through teacher questioning during lessons and also by an end of year written test. Teacher, pupil and self-assessments are all a focal part of the students learning in physical education, this occurs throughout the year.

Years 10 & 11

In Years 10 and 11 our main focus is on Sport for Life where we offer a student-centred approach. Students are given far more flexibility in the sports that they choose to develop and pursue. A student’s well-being and personal desires are at the forefront of the
curriculum. Student’s will have the ability to pick the activities that they would like to study, and the curriculum is then personalised around their choices.

In the Upper School, we also offer AQA GCSE Physical Education, which is 40% practical and 60% theoretical assessment. We have a healthy take-up from our students and results are good.

GCSE PE

EXAMINATION BOARD: AQA

Physical Education provides students with the knowledge and understanding of how to live a healthy and active lifestyle, enabling them to make informed choices about their own physical development. Students can choose from a variety of activities in physical activity in which to participate and be assessed.

Course Outline:

Practical Coursework: (40% of GCSE)

Practical Performance in three different activities (1 team + 1 individual + I other from prescribed list of activities
Analysis & evaluation of performance to bring about improvement in 1 activity of choice

Theory Content: (60% of GCSE)

The Human Body & Movement in Physical Activity & Sport (30% of GCSE)

Applied anatomy & physiology
Movement analysis
Physical training
Use of data

Socio-cultural influences & well-being in Physical Activity & Sport (30% of GCSE)

Sports psychology
Socio-cultural influences
Health, fitness & well-being
Use of data

A Level PE

EXAMINATION BOARD: AQA

Course Outline:

Applied anatomy and physiology.

Skill acquisition.

Sport and society.

Exercise physiology.

Biomechanical movement.

Sport psychology.

Paper 1: Factors affecting participation in physical activity and sport

A 2 hour written examination worth 35% of the A Level PE.

Section A: Applied anatomy and physiology.

Section B: Skill acquisition.

Section C: Sport and society.

Paper 2: Factors affecting optimal performance in physical activity and sport

A 2 hour written examination worth 35% of the A Level PE.

Section A: Exercise physiology and biomechanics.

Section B: Sport psychology.

Section C: Sport and society and technology in sport.

Non-Exam Assessment (NEA): Practical performance in physical activity and sport

An internal assessment worth 30% of the A Level PE which is moderated externally. Students are assessed as a performer or coach in the full sided version of one activity.

Academic Literacy in Physical Education

At Mayfield the students are taught their Physical Education lessons through the Concept Curriculum. Students define and discuss one concept per lesson and discuss where this word is also important within their school and wider life.

Key terminology plays a role in lesson delivery where students access subject specific words and are able to link these to sporting performance and sporting excellence this both extends their subject knowledge and prepares them for GCSE PE whilst also developing the literacy of our students.

Students are encouraged to extend their interest in
Physical Education by…

Students are encouraged to further their interest in Physical Education by enrolling in activities that compliment the school’s curriculum.

Year 7: Mayfield Challenge
The Mayfield Challenge is a physical based intervention programme that enables learners to be able to master key life skills. Students can build up friendship, work as part of a group whilst enjoying the freedom of the great outdoors. This challenge is pupil led which
encourages students to be able to be the leader and learn to organise other members of the group, working on skills such as communication, teamwork, and resilience.

Year 8: PGL Outdoor and Adventurous trip
Students have the opportunity to attend a residential adventurous trip where they are able to take part in activities not normally available to them in a safe and stimulating environment. Students have the freedom to discover, learn and explore more about
themselves and have the opportunity to experience challenges and overcome them using resilience and teamwork.

Year 9 – 13: Duke of Edinburgh

At Mayfield we have taken students to a variety of elite sporting fixtures. These include: