Physical Education provides an opportunity for students to perform individually and as part of a team, whilst competing against others.  It promotes an understanding of student’s own capabilities and those of others and an appreciation of failure as a way of developing success. This encourages self-worth, self-esteem and supporting approaches to learning. 

Sport inherently is underpinned by respect. In Physical education students learn their own and others value and the collective need to be respectful to the learning and development needs of themselves and others.  The lesson structure embeds the basic standards of respect from the moment they enter the department, through the whole lesson experience to the moment they leave. Students are encouraged to learn and perform in an environment of respect and these are magnified through their understanding of the rules and regulations associated to the various sports they perform. For some students who are fortunate enough to represent the school, they also learn to respect the opportunity and how to conduct themselves in a highly competitive environment. 

As a lot of sport within Physical Education is guided discover and trial and error, particularly in competitive situations, students learn to develop their ability to reflect on their own performance and develop improved responses concerning the execution of skills and application of strategies and tactics. Students are stretched through questioning to judge the application of performance and give reasons for performance outcomes. 

Students are continuously challenged in Physical Education to develop the technical and tactical knowledge required to improve performance.  This is done through listening to teaching points, whilst observing demonstrations and crucially exploring through practical application. Lessons are developed from skills in isolation to competitive conditioned situations to the full competitive context to allow students to retrieve their developed knowledge and respond with improved accuracy. 

A variety of skills are essential in Physical Education and these are developed through all lessons and extra-curricular opportunities. Students must demonstrate organization skills when bringing kit to lessons and for extra-curricular clubs and fixtures. They are given a wealth of opportunity to use a variety of communication methods such as non-verbal when signaling or moving into space in invasion games, verbal through communicating with team mates as well as umpires and referees.  Though embedded feedback opportunities, students are encouraged to discuss and verbalise their learning, as well as problem solving to enhance future performance. 

The assessment of students at KS3 is based on an ascending steps system so all students are directed towards understanding their current abilities and are aware of the requirements of higher ability, therefore encouraged to aspire towards the ‘next step’. Opportunities are provided for students to experience a wide range of sporting experience through the variety of sport taught in lessons across the year. A number of sports and competitions are available to students through the extra-curricular programme to assist them in making positive life choices and pursuing further experiences. Sporting success is promoted within the curriculum through ‘Half-Term Heroes’, where 2 top students from each class are selected for their performance, attitude and effort. Extra-curricular successes are celebrated publicly in staff briefings and on Twitter and publicised in a half termly sports report.