11 July 2023
We have been awarded the prestigious 'Platinum Award' for School Game! This is an outstanding achievement which takes years of excellent Physical Education and health provision before judges will award. We are very proud of this award and a huge thank you must go to all who have been involved in the journey. Below is an extract from the award submission detailing how we focus on physical education...
At Fairfield Primary school we ensure that high quality Physical Education is an integral part of the whole school curriculum that continuously strives for positive and inclusive participation of all pupils and support every child in overcoming any barriers that may stand in their way. We aim to provide our young people with the; skills, understanding, desire and commitment to continue to improve and achieve in a wide range of PE, sport and health enhancing physical activities while participating safely and effectively in a supportive environment. We instil a love of learning and use our local area to offer a wider range of active opportunities. We provide opportunities for pupils to participate and excel in competitive sports and activities both in and beyond the curriculum while continuing to build our community links with local partners and sports facilities across and beyond Allerdale, laying the foundations for a child’s passion to lead a healthy and physical lifestyle. Our whole curriculum is entwined with physical activity opportunities and our curriculum ensures that every child can access the curriculum and opportunities with scaffolded and adaptive teaching to allow participation and increased self esteem for all.
Participation is key at Fairfield, no matter what barriers or hesitations individuals have we want all our opportunities to be accessible and allow children to reach their personal best. In order to do this our children are exposed to the challenges and journeys of reputable role models and are provided with quality learning experiences and coaching in sports accessible to all despite disabilities, gender or ethnicity. Our participation numbers have increased significantly over the past 5 years enabling all students from Nursery to Year 6 to engage in multiple sporting experiences, competitions and coaching days alongside our array of physical activity, carefully planned within our curriculum . We have extended our offer to also include; canoeing, climbing and ghyll scrambling, Forest Schools, PE curriculum sessions and lessons that promote both a healthy and physical lifestyle by using Active Maths and following the Phunky Foods scheme within our DT curriculum. Daily we meet our 30 active minutes and for most pupils we are achieving 60 active minutes through our fantastic playground provisions (timber trail/climbing frame, playground boxes and leaders, outdoor climbing wall), 5 A Day Fitness and our 1K A Day. Our SEN pupils also receive additional sessions including; swimming, horse riding, trampolining, climbing and explorative play throughout the year to provide experiences tailored to their specific needs.
Our most recent celebration of our all-inclusive and maximum participation approach was our Sports Days where every child entered every race and the response from parents has been electric. Children have challenged themselves and through class discussions they have been able to explain how proud and determined they felt to challenge themselves, particularly our SEN and less active students.
We continue to attend all coaching and competition events on offer to our consortium and beyond Allerdale. The mass participation coaching days provided by Cockermouth School have been extremely successful and the competitions on offer have provided opportunity for all students Years 1 to 6 to regularly attend coaching sessions with prolonged amounts of physical activity and sufficient challenge provided to students of all abilities. Competitions attended in and around our local area have been a huge success and students come back overjoyed and positive from their experiences with a heightened understanding of the sporting world around them. Particularly for netball and Cross Country where our children have reached Level 2 competitions, County Championships and some have even proceeded to National Finals. Concluding our year our children also took part in Tri Golf at the School Games, an inclusive and exhilarating opportunity that inspired those identified as less active. They have a strong understanding of team work and respect for others and show determination and passion throughout. By allowing our students to engage in frequent events and an array of inter and intra competition (all recorded in our termly activity reports and half termly school coaching and competition calendars communicated with parents and staff), students become resilient and build their self-belief in preparation for each upcoming event. This also enables fantastic transition support to our students preparing to move to Secondary School and for our younger students, transition opportunities for KS2 with exposure to competition, new learning environments and interaction with different students beyond their own class. As a large school with two form entry (classes mixed on a two-year rotation) this is incredibly beneficial for building relationships amongst the children and supports increased respect and trust. Transferable life skills inspired by our sporting offer.
At Fairfield Primary School we offer a wide and varied array of After School Clubs to all of our students using providers from our local community and our teaching staff such as; karate, netball, dance, orienteering and cricket. We have also provided students with opportunities to broaden coaching experiences beyond the school day and funded holidays camps for our aspiring athletes. Our coaches create a fantastic rapport with the children and staff as they are familiar and supportive faces throughout the year and many provide curriculum coaching too. For many of our reluctant, less active students this creates an admirable figure and exciting experience distinguishable from the ordinary classroom. Our coaches are deployed effectively across our coaching calendar and their expertise is invaluable. They provide an array of CPD for our staff carefully planned through our subject development plan sharing their wealth of knowledge, support team selections for competition and they provide memorable experiences tailored to the needs of all students while following our strategic and aspirational curriculum.
Through termly monitoring and observation of our wonderful teachers and coaches we are able to offer supportive CPD if required and ensure our curriculum is being successfully delivered, assessed and success is celebrated for all students. Staff are regularly provided with training and CPD opportunities to ensure our delivery is to an exceptional standard and their knowledge of PESSPA and the School Games Values are maintained with assemblies and staff meetings led by the PE Leads and all progress is liaised back to our Governing Body annually. Most recently our KS2 children have been delivering School Games assemblies to our KS1 pupils informing them about competitions, values and how these are embedded throughout our sporting provision at Fairfield. This is a lovely opportunity to support transition into KS2 hearing about the experiences they could experience too.
Pupil voice sessions consistently provide positive feedback that is recorded using a structured document that allows us to see clearly our next steps for future development and the success of our delivery. Children are thoroughly engaged when reflecting on positive experiences and discussing their personal best. The Pupil Voice approach allows for a variety of students to have their say whether or not they are naturally engaged in sport or find it challenging. Through pupil conferencing we are able to ensure our offer of clubs and opportunities suits the need of all pupils and explain to them the direction of our curriculum to help them understand their own learning journey and what we can offer to further enhance our provision. In addition, through our School Parliament system (previously School and Sports Council), students now see sport as a factor embedded throughout their whole school life featuring in multiple areas across the curriculum and our school calendar. Our pupils who act in role as members of parliament relay and discuss information with their constituencies allowing an honest and open line of communication across the whole school and allow the whole school to have their say on factors that shape our sport provision such as; playtime sport provision and equipment and after school clubs. Along with our focused end learning goals, we aim for our children to understand responsibility, learn respect and accept the added challenge of organisation, communication and teamwork all of which are supported by the experiences outlined above.
Every aspect of our curriculum seeks to have a positive impact on confidence, health and mental well-being and opportunities to enhance this are continuously at the heart of Physical Education at Fairfield Primary School. Sporting activities are structured into our KS1 Nurture sessions to support healthy bodies and healthy minds using the Active Starts Scheme to enable all pupils varied opportunities to become physically literate.
We make fantastic use of our location to maximise our sporting opportunities and promote physical activity. With experiences on offer such as; multiple orienteering routes at the heart of the lakes, weekly forest school sessions, outdoor activity residentials ranging from Years 2- 6, and whole school ‘Grand Day Outs’ where every child embarks on an appropriately challenging walk, we use the beautiful surroundings to allow children to tackle walking routes that they can then share with their families in order to promote a healthy lifestyle in addition to our encouragements to walk, cycle and scoot to school. The activities discussed all work to promote our eco-friendly School Games Value and help us reduce our carbon footprint. We walk to all local competitions and use our school field (a short walk from our school site) to facilitate; our 2 hours of PE Curriculum delivery inclusive of coaching sessions, after school clubs and Cross-Country Trials with members of our consortium schools. Surrounded in trees planted by our students in the Eco- Council, the field provides a hub for physical activity. Particularly for our eager Girls Rugby team, SEN Panatholon events that have been held and our all-inclusive and maximum participation Sports Days. Positioned perfectly near our local Bowling Club where we enjoy Year 6 transition sessions with others from our consortium schools, the field is a fantastically used facility.
Celebrating the amazing success of all our students is a priority, to ensure that all pupils feel valued and recognise their achievements. The amazing successes of our children from Nursery to Year 6 are shared with students, parents and staff weekly. Our Celebration Assembly is a hive of sporting and academic success frequently sharing the latest achievements in line with the School Games. Sporting success, coaching days and competition reviews can be found on our school website and spread over our social media to raise the profile of sport and the School Games approach. Weekly, we share success stories of students beyond school and this allows our students to recognise the importance of their physical growth beyond the classroom and be an inspiration for one another. This has been an extremely positive approach to celebrating success of all pupils and through pupil groups it has been noted that this encourages children to try new things that they did not know was on offer. Most recently we have celebrated success of students who have; competed in the Dwarf Sports Association National Games, took part in the Mirror Sailing National Championships and represented Cockermouth Swimming Club in the Copeland Graded Swim Gala. Information and direct links to local clubs in our community are on our school website to help support families that wish to seek further opportunities and the school also supports local club trials to help encourage children to be increasingly more active.
Physical Education at Fairfield Primary School has embarked on a exhilarating journey to improve, push boundaries and allow every child to diminish any doubt and enable all children to be physically literate, active and successful in their own physical education whilst creating memorable experiences and a love for all the elements that make up successful engagement within our Physical Education. We feel that we reflect what the School Games should represent within schools and that the words spoken by our children reflect the enjoyable experiences they have and successful engagement by our students. Pupil voice is a fundamental part of ensuring every child’s needs are met and it is our children’s ideas, reflections and inspirational achievements shared within our school that allow us to know that our young people are engaged and positively thriving in all that Fairfield and School Games has to offer. Undeniably; Passion, Self-Belief, Respect, Honesty, Determination and Teamwork are all developed by our young people and we recognise and ensure that the experience of sport is epitomised and embodied within schools. Fairfield Primary School reflects the spirit of the School Games.