Curriculum Intent

At St Thomas’s Centre, we believe that physical education is an essential component of a well-rounded education that nurtures the development of physical, mental and emotional health. Our PE scheme is designed to foster a lifelong love for physical activity, promote healthy lifestyles, and encourage the values of sportsmanship, teamwork, and performing to their personal best. We aim to engage pupils in a range of sports and motivate them to work towards achieving their own physical goals. Overall, the aim of PE at both KS3 and KS4 is to provide students with a well-rounded education in physical activity, sports, fitness, and health, while also fostering important skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership, and resilience.

Key Stage 3 overview

Throughout KS3, the PE curriculum aims to provide a broad and balanced experience that promotes physical literacy, personal development, and lifelong participation in physical activity and sport. It emphasizes the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and understanding across a range of activities, while also focusing on positive attitudes towards health, fitness, and well-being. Students will continue to develop fundamental skills in KS3 from primary school such as running, jumping, throwing, and catching. A further emphasis on developing coordination, balance, and agility through structured activities and games will be another focus.

Key Stage 4 overview

In KS4 knowledge builds on the foundation learning from KS3 PE. Throughout KS4 PE, there is an emphasis on promoting lifelong participation in physical activity and fostering the development of healthy lifestyles. Students are encouraged to apply the knowledge and skills gained in PE to compete in sports and increase their health and well-being in and outside of school.

In the next academic year, we will be looking into offering a Sports Leaders course for our students in KS4 as a qualification where they can gain an insight of leadership skills, creating lesson plans, delivering a warm-up, main session and cool-down as well as learning about assessments in PE. Students will learn about different leaders and what skills and behaviours are needed in different roles such as a coach/referee/manager. This course is a mixture of theoretical and practical learning to engage students inside and outside of a classroom. This course builds on students’ confidence and knowledge in leading sports to others and is a well-recognised qualification.