Rise Park offers a wide range of sports which are led by Mr Fisher, our Sports Specialist. Classes from year 1-6 have their weekly PE lessons taught by Mr Fisher alongside their class teacher who will deliver one lesson each half term. This high-quality hour of coaching is the main timeslot where the children learn the importance of the four PE key drivers.
- Respect for the rules and others– whatever the task is, it is crucial that the instructions have been listened to and the rules of the activity are being upheld. This keeps the conditions fair for all that are in the session.
- Resilience– all of our children are at different levels of ability and naturally find that all tasks vary in challenge. The Rise Park ethos promotes resilience, a want to keep trying until something becomes learned rather than a high success rate straight away. Do you give up easily?
- Collaborating with others –one should never outweigh the many, so learning to work as part of a team can transfer into numerous life situations to come. Being a contributing part of a team is a valuable lesson inside and outside the classroom.
- Emotional awareness – this, when relating to sport, is linked to compassion and empathy, during sport can you show empathy for others and pick up on their emotions and change your behaviour accordingly to get the most out of that individual. Really touching upon teamwork and leadership, if this is you already then you would make a fantastic Sports Ambassador.
Over the course of the academic year in PE Rise Parkers will cover a unit of work from the following six topics: Gymnastics, Dance, Invasion games (attacking and defending), Striking and Fielding, Net and Wall and Athletics.
We pride ourselves on the endless sporting opportunities we provide for our pupils and will continue in this direction ensuring access for all.
Fun Fit intervention
The aim of Fun Fit is to improve a child’s co-ordination skills and underlying postural stability and balance. Activities included in the Fun Fit session plans will also help improve specific skills such as hand eye co-ordination, body awareness, spatial awareness and ball skills. Children that attend Fun Fit club at the beginning of the school day are often better focused in class, have more self-confidence and are more able to concentrate for the rest of the day. Children who are having problems in school due to poor co-ordination may well benefit from attending Fun Fit. The teachers work with Mr Fisher and refer children that may have difficulty with issues like handwriting, dressing and changing, using a pair of scissors and general balance and posture in class.
Fun Fit runs alongside intervention three mornings a week and is usually a 3-month programme, therefore typically last for a whole term. The session runs between 8:20am–8:50am then the children are taken to start their school day. Fun Fit is a real celebrated success at Rise Park and is a programme that has positive impact on the children.
Sheriff’s Challenge
The Sheriff’s Challenge is high profile at Rise Park and involves every member of our team in some manner. Each key stage has two courses marked out on the playground and the other on the field. The KS1 courses are 50m long and the KS2 courses total 100m each. The children can take part in the Sheriff’s Challenge in whatever they are wearing be it PE kit or school uniform. Each class just grabs an iPad and once at the Sheriff’s Challenge track the class begins to run laps until half of the group have slowed to a walking pace, at this point the group stops. The number of laps ran are logged on the Sheriff’s Challenge whiteboards by the Sheriff’s Challenge monitor from that class.
The school’s expectation is that each class gets out and runs the Sheriff’s Challenge a minimum of three times per week, this essentially accumulates to another PE lesson but is manageable enough to not affect the classes timetable. Each class keeps track of the number of laps that were ran the week before and that is the score that we want to improve upon to ensure consistent progression.
All four key drivers link perfectly to the Sheriff’s Challenge and that is why it is our whole school initiative.
Lunch Time Activity
During lunchtimes the aim is to have as many Rise Parkers engaging in structured play as possible, remembering that lunchtime is period that should have enjoyment and child’s choice at the centre where possible. However, it is proven that physical activity positively transfers into the classroom, along with all the mental, social, emotional and physical benefits that we instil into our PE Rise Park ethos lead by Mr Fisher. Midday supervisors are an integral part of our lunchtimes flowing smoothly and are fully aware and updated on the lunchtime sport layout and rota, our middays are brilliant at using that unique relationship with the children to deal with the lunch side of lunchtime as well as refereeing sports, administering first aid for injuries, settling disputes, and providing that all important general care.
KS1
A good range of equipment such as a selection of balls, hula hoops, skipping ropes, frisbees, bean bags, quoits and a parachute are at the disposal of all children on the KS1 playground each lunchtime. We have a designated area for football which seems to be the most popular sport. Daily trips are made to the KS1 playground from our Sport Ambassadors who design, manage and run different activities for the younger children which are always flooded with popularity.
KS2
We offer a wide variety of sports ruled by a strict rota to encourage broadening our children’s interests and skill sets. Basketball, Handball, Football and French Cricket are the sports that have been deemed most popular through the feedback of pupil voice. Through good organisation from our Sport Ambassadors all activities are set up on the playground 5 minutes before lunchtime starts, so our Rise Parkers can access as much sport possible in their lunchtime. On top of that we also have a weekly personal best challenge (PBC) which is always a closed skill task again, designed and ran by the Sport Ambassadors where you compete against yourself to achieve your highest score. Anyone is welcome to try as many times as they wish and the best score out of all KS2 children receive an award in assembly at the end of that week.
Play Leaders
All staff at Rise Park support one another, we have a handful of TA’s/ Nurture Specialists that go beyond their call of duty and take a select group of children at lunchtimes and to use sport/games as a medium of teaching valuable lesson/morals in keeping with our schools’ key drivers. Tackling difficult issues such as empathy, confidence, resilience, sharing, regulating emotions and how to behave correctly on the playground. The children enjoy the activities covered in these groups and get to focus on values that begin in the classroom.
Intra School Competition
The competitive element is a very important aspect of sport, and here at Rise Park we think that a winning mentality isn’t everything, but definitely something that shouldn’t be overlooked or under estimated. Our children regularly compete against one another in their weekly PE lessons, whether that be in one on one situations or team-based activities. There is plenty of opportunity to compete at a variety of sports during lunchtime that are well structured and officiated by staff and sport ambassadors. Weekly personal best challenges take place across KS2 focusing on personal development.. All these situations build our children’s confidence, empathy, drive and most important embed the ethos of our four Rise Park PE key drivers: resilience, emotional awareness, respecting the rules and collaborating with others.
Inter School Competition
Receiving the chance to represent your school is a privilege that we hope all our Rise Parkers strive for and will get the opportunity to do at some point through their primary education experience. Competing against children from other schools is something that can develop qualities that we expect and hope our children will take with them into their secondary education, such as self-esteem, fair play, respect for others and the game, determination, pride, compassion and many more. Rise Park aims to attend an average of three competitions each half term therefore aiming for roughly 18 over the course of the academic year, these competitions take place across all year groups in both key stages.
When in Y6, all children will have the opportunity to attend the Football after-school club, from this, there will then be the possibility of being selected to play for the school football team in competitive matches. In addition, we frequently look for shining stars in Y5 to bolster the squad if numbers are lacking, Historically, this club is really popular and there is always competition for places. The teams, matches and training sessions are run by Mr Kelly (Y6) and Mr Ginns-Farrows (EYFS) for both genders.
After School Club activity
After school clubs are a real positive for Rise Park and something our children are always very keen to attend and get excited about. Mr Fisher runs three after school clubs each half term. The activities are chosen through listening to the pupil voice and also in keeping with upcoming competitions. As a school our aim is to provide 3 after school clubs for each half term across KS1 and KS2, so each year group has one opportunity to attend an after-school club termly. Maximum capacity for each club is 12 children. All after school clubs will run for an hour.
Sports Ambassadors
These individuals are a chosen mix of responsible, confident, out-going Y5 and Y6 pupils with the main objective of raising the profile of PE at our school to as wider audience as possible. They usually maintain the role for their final two years with us.
Sport Ambassadors attend a minimum fortnightly meeting with Mr Fisher to discuss their goals throughout the year, these usually consist of increasing participation in sport at lunchtimes for KS2 children, designing and managing the personal best challenges, working on the KS1 playground to run games and build leadership skills, hosting inter sport competitions, managing charity fundraising events, raising funds for improvements to the schools facilities, organising sports day and above all being positive role models to all others including staff at Rise Park Primary and Nursery.
