Physical Education (PE)
The PE department includes the following:
- Mr M Chirnside - Lead Teacher of PE
- Miss A Skinner - Teacher of PE
- Mr R Skinner - Teacher of PE
Physical Education (PE) educates students through physical activities to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies to lead a healthy lifestyle. At SST, the PE department is committed to running a fully extensive programme which enriches students' lives in both PE lessons as well as extra-curricular activities. We aim to stretch and challenge our students by offering a wide range of sporting activities including handball, outdoor adventurous activities (OAA) and table tennis.
Throughout lessons, the British Fundamental Values of democracy, the rule of law, spiritual and moral values are all incorporated as our students learn the importance of sportsmanship, fair play and the different roles and responsibilities.
We also encourage the key values of determination, resilience and confidence throughout all key stages and offer a safe, and welcoming environment where students want to learn and develop their skills. Students have the opportunity to participate in both individual and team sports to enhance their team work, communication and problem-solving skills. Many of these sports can also then lead to competitions both within the school as part of the Inter-House Competitions, as well as inter-school and inter-county competitions.
Our aim is to offer a very broad variety of sports and physical activities so that all students can experience something that they enjoy outside of school and hone their skills to be life-long sports lovers. In Key Stage 3, students learn the skills necessary to take part in a variety of sports and have the opportunity to take part in lots of different activities, for example netball, sports hall athletics, fitness, rounders, and cricket. When students reach Key Stage 4, we’ll look to continue offering a very broad variety of sports and physical activities. We will also look to gain feedback from student voice to help shape how their sporting curriculum/ pathway will look throughout the two years. Further to this, students will also have the option to follow a Sports Leadership pathway, with the chance to achieve a recognised qualification from Sports Leaders UK (SLQ) in Year 10.
We also have excellent facilities at SST consisting of a brand new six badminton court Sports Hall, a newly refurbished MUGA, an 11-a-side 3G pitch, freshly laid six netball/ seven tennis courts and playing fields. All these facilities are used in lessons to give the students a great experience of PE.
Sporting Initiatives
Most Valuable Person Award (MVP) - The MVP award is an initiative which is used within Core PE lessons, as another avenue to reward students for their input/ efforts during a lesson. This is a way to promote success for not just the most able performer but those individuals who show their knowledge and understanding in all elements of the lesson, with these being a few examples;
- Great listening skills throughout the lesson.
- Prove that you can take on board comments made by the teacher.
- Be a great Team leader.
- Show FIRST CLASS attitude and behaviour towards the whole class.
This has hugely impacted lessons with an increase in student engagement and effort, with students working exceptionally hard and going above and beyond to try and win the MVP award.
SST Elite Athlete - The ‘SST Elite’ white t-shirt will be awarded to one male and one female student in each year group at the end of the academic year. This will be awarded to the student who shows the following:
- Commitment to PE at extra-curricular clubs.
- This will not necessarily be awarded to the most able sporting performer!
- Show immaculate behaviour within PE lessons.
- Show kindness, empathy and respect.
- Want to assist the PE teacher with equipment, taking lead of warm-ups etc.
This initiative over time will help to identify those individuals at SST who thrive within PE and are all round advocates. These individuals in the future will look to form the Sports Council and be used to help assist with PE events and further initiatives.
This has had a really positive impact on the PE department/ school as it has increased the number of students attending sporting clubs, which in turn helps the department to be able to enter competitions/ events, with the ability to form squads/ teams. Furthermore, as a PE Lead I have tried to increase the sporting club opportunity to offer as much exposure to the students as possible within the sporting world, to help promote a long term love for PE/ sport.
Elite Masterclass Programme - This is a new initiative that will run from February 2023 and offer those high ability performers within PE an opportunity to develop further in all areas of sport, through educating them in areas such as; sports psychology, diet and nutrition and mental resilience as a few examples. These sessions will be run by professional sports people. This is a unique initiative that has been put together and developed by the Lead Teachers of PE across the Valley Invicta Academy Trust. Schools will nominate a select few students who they feel this will further develop within their sporting fields, to help them reach their maximal potential.
Key Stage 3 Curriculum Pathway
Year 7 – Team Building, Gymnastics, Netball, Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA), Athletics & Rounders
Year 8 – Tag Rugby, Table Tennis, Handball, Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA), Athletics & Cricket
Year 9 – Handball, Badminton, Netball, Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA), Athletics & Soft Ball
