PE and Sport

Physical Activity

Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults. 

At St Andrew’s, we know how important physical education (PE), sport and being active is to the development of children. PE leads to improved fitness, health and well-being, focus, drive, concentration, attitude and academic achievement.

Physical Education is given a high priority with children taking part in two sessions weekly. Some of these sessions are led by Sport Coaches from SCS Sports. The others are led by the class teacher, using the GetSet4PE scheme of learning. 

Coordination and muscle development

In addition to gross motor development involving large movements such as climbing, running, dancing etc, our curriculum also develops fine motor skills. This involves small muscles working with the brain and nervous system to control movements in areas such as the hands, fingers, lips, tongue and eyes. 

Fine motor control and precision helps with hand-eye co-ordination, which is later linked to early literacy. Repeated and varied opportunities to explore and play with small world activities, puzzles, arts and crafts and the practice of using small tools, with feedback and support from adults, allow children to develop proficiency, control and confidence.  

Fine motor skills, combined with hand to eye coordination are essential for sports.

Range of opportunities

As children get older they learn a range of sports including hockey, football, basketball, netball, tennis, cricket and rounders. Children also have swimming, gymnastics, dance and athletic lessons and take part in a range of competitive games. 

Each year, as a school, we compete across the county in a variety of sports in a range of year groups. This is an excellent opportunity for children to experience the competitive side of sport and allows them to work together, in teams in a different context. 

Miss Ramsey, the school PE lead is passionate about giving children the opportunity to build their own skill set in an array of sports and is keen to support all children, no matter their starting points to flourish in this area of the curriculum.