At Berrywood, PE and sport is a strength of the school. We recognise the value of PE to a child’s overall development and aim to foster a lifelong love of sport and physical exercise. Through a variety of sports and activities we aim to develop many key skills including agility, balance, coordination and teamwork. We promote the opportunity for all children to experience success and failure through competition but above all we aim to encourage a healthy body and mind. Since April 2014, the school has used all of the sports premium funding to employ a full time member of staff to teach PE and sporting clubs exclusively. The role of the sports and physical development leader is not only to provide high quality sports teaching and improve the PE curriculum, but also to develop class based, non-specialist teachers by modelling good practice and leading staff training. Due to the size of the school and overlapping timetable we aim for each class to be taught at least once by the specialist teacher per week. The PE curriculum covers all aspects of the National Curriculum and ensures a broad range of sporting activities which compliment intra and inter school competitions. Children are taught two lessons of PE per week each lasting approximately one hour. One of the lessons will take place indoors (e.g. gymnastics, dance) and the other outside (athletics and ball sports). Where possible we try to exploit opportunities for cross curricular learning; we integrate thematic learning in dance, gymnastics or outdoor adventurous activities and we encourage children to use technology to support with self-assessment. Berrywood has an evolving extra-curricular provision, with sports clubs taking place before and after school every day of the week. The timetable of clubs on offer changes every half term and each last for six weeks in total. Some clubs such as running, gymnastics, tennis, karate, football, street dance and table tennis remain the same all year round. Other clubs adapt with the seasons such as rounders, hockey, cricket, athletics, basketball, golf, netball and multi-skills. In some cases, these clubs develop children so that they can competently represent the school in sports competitions. All children are encouraged to take part and every child will have the opportunity to participate. The majority of clubs are run voluntarily by teachers, learning support assistants and suitably qualified parents from the school community. To supplement this, clubs are also run by experienced and appropriately qualified sports coaches; these are placed by outside companies who have been invited in by the school. We are active in our school cluster, frequently competing against other local schools in a variety of sports such as football, cricket, athletics, table tennis, hockey, swimming and netball. Indeed, we annually host our own football, athletics and gymnastics competitions to provide additional opportunity for children to compete. The school has established athletics and gymnastics as a real strength; in recent years we have consistently qualified in both disciplines at the School Games or similar level 3 events, competing against the very best schools across the whole of Hampshire. In addition, we run regular intra school competitions in sports including rounders, football and hockey. All children at Berrywood will represent their assigned house: Sapphire, Topaz, Emerald and Ruby. Every child will also participate in a traditional sports day in which parents are invited to attend. For children in key stage one a multi skills approach is used, however in key stage two the events are competitive In the final half term of the year, children in Year 5 develop their leadership skills by creating and delivering sporting activities for younger children. Following these experiences, at the onset of Year 6, children are selected to be a sports captain or as a Lunchtime Sports Leader. Sports captains promote PE by reporting on competitions and events in assemblies, as well as acting as a pupil voice so that future development evolves in line with children’s ideas and opinions. A timetable of lunchtime sporting activities is on offer and with the support of staff members these are led by children in Year 6. The Lunchtime Sports Leaders provide structured play, promote fitness and give children the chance to develop their skills in specific sports. The school has many links in the local community with sports clubs and teams. Children who are particularly interested or able can be pointed in the right direction so that they can continue to develop their skills beyond the school curriculum. PE is constantly moving forward at Berrywood and there are many projects in the future we hope to embrace or develop. The school is always looking to improve the depth and quality of sports equipment through grants, and sponsorship. In recognition of our commitment to competitive sport and willingness to promote physical activity for every child, we have been awarded the School Games Gold Award for the last four years consecutively.
We recognise the value of PE to a child's overall development and aim to foster a lifelong love of sport and physical exercise