Physical Education
At Kettleshulme St James Physical Education is a high priority. We are strong believers in finding sports and physical activities which are right for everyone as we know that not all of us enjoy competitive, team sports. With this in mind, we work hard to ensure that we offer a variety of activities, including yoga, Parkour, gymnastics, multi-sports and dance, which help our children to understand that there is more to PE than football and netball. This way our children have the opportunity to find out which sports suit them.
We teach our children the importance of having a healthy body, but also the importance of having a healthy mind. Our children know how the two are very closely linked and have a huge influence on each other, so it is important to care for both in equal measures.
At Kettleshulme we use 'Complete PE' as our scheme of work. We chose this as it was created by teachers, for teachers. Below you can see Cycle A of the sports which we teach over the course of one year.
Mr Otto, the class teacher in Hillside, delivers weekly PE lessons across our school.
All of our pupils also take part in a thirty minute yoga lesson each week. We have been building on this skill since January 2021 (when during lockdown each day started with a thirty minute yoga/HIITS/boxercise/power yoga session for every member of our community).
We are really proud of the resilience, core strength, balance and focus which all of our pupils now demonstrate during these sessions, which are led by Mrs McLaughlin our yoga teacher. During this time we also reflect on our inner strength, our inner thoughts and our inner peace. We set an affirmation for the week ahead (such as 'I am unique', 'I am strong', 'I am love') and we celebrate everything that we are capable of. We acknowledge that during our practice we will all look different in our poses, and that this is okay because we are all built in different ways.
In addition to these lessons we have a weekly 'Fitness Challenge' which is set by our 'Fitness Ambassadors' from Hillside class. This might be 1 minute of spotty dogs each day or 20 high knees each day. The Fitness Ambassadors check up on all of the classes to make sure that everyone is completing their challenges.
Each class also takes part in a weekly run around our school grounds. The run is measured out to be approximately 1 kilometre. The children challenge themselves to achieve a quicker time each week and their aim is to maintain a jog for the whole way around.
We also offer 30 or 45 minute long swimming lessons to ALL pupils, from Reception right through to Year 6. Our lessons take place at Bollington Leisure Centre, which is a wonderful pool to work with and the staff are amazing at what they do.