The PE department want to thank you all, as always, for supporting your children in their sporting fixtures. Often these fixtures result in the students returning to school at 5 or 6pm and depending on traffic our return times are sometimes missed. For your patience and understanding, we would like to say thank you.
Sports fixtures offer so much for the children representing Sancton Wood. They provide a sense of unity amongst the players; develop personal resilience; help them to overcome personal challenges; allow the students to experience and deal with a variety of emotions; and most of all, an opportunity to have fun with their friends.
The Lent term will see another rise in fixtures for all year groups as the better weather returns. Ninety-five percent of the time parents and guardians will be informed of the fixture one week in advance. Sometimes this is not possible if we are invited to a last-minute fixture; we will endeavour to get information to you quickly. Upon receiving details of your child’s sporting invitation, please reply to confirm they can or cannot attend as soon as possible.
Curriculum in Michaelmas term
Michaelmas term saw a variety of sports that the students experienced. Our curriculum is created based on what the PE department believe will suit the students as a whole, the type of sporting fixtures we are participating in, the facilities available to us at the time and, most of all, what is going to be the most fun, active and engaging for the students.
Across the school students learnt to play and participate in rugby, cross-country running, tennis, gymnastics, basketball and health-related fitness.
We teach these sports and their concepts using a variety of teaching methods, from a game sense approach, where students learn about tactics and think about decision-making before learning the specific skill, to the whole-part-whole method, which in its simplest form is where students play a game, identify and practice a skill, and then return to the game with that skill focus. The PE staff are always conscious that one method does not suit all and we are constantly reflecting on how our students learn best and how much they are enjoying the sessions. This will be carried through into our Lent and Summer terms.
Curriculum in the Lent term
In the Lent term, students will participate in handball, dodgeball, netball, and football. The older students (year 9 and 10) will participate in a variety of fitness classes, including spinning, boxercise (no-contact aerobic boxing fitness) and high intensity interval training.
Swimming in the Michaelmas term
The swimming coaches and Sancton Wood staff have been doing an excellent job once again this term. We want to thank all the staff for ensuring the students are walked safely to and from St Pauls road; ensuring children are changed and ready by poolside in a safe manner and then returned back to school without forgetting (too much) of their kit. Of course, we thank parents and class teachers for ensuring students are in their PE kit for their swimming lesson. It really does make such a huge difference to the amount of time needed for changing, because a tracksuit is much easier to put on that a shirt and tie.
Swimming in the Lent term
Swimming days and lessons will continue as normal on Fridays. We continue to ask that your child has their PE kit to put on over their swim kit. (Students arrive to school in uniform and their class teachers supervise changing prior to their swimming lesson.)
PE values, standards and uniform
Our PE values are the T-REDS: Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline, and Sportsmanship. It is our aim that all lessons and fixtures are bound by these values and our PE standards are constantly reviewed against them. This includes the values of the staff who lead by example and the students whom we aim to inspire.
As part of the values and standards is our focus on PE kit. Ninety-five percent of students have outstanding standards in their PE kit, which is clean and ready to use in the next PE lesson. Parents and guardians, we thank you!
In the Lent term the PE staff will focus heavily on our standards of pupil dress. And we would like the following for all students in every PE lesson, both indoor or outdoor:
- Full water bottle. This is critical.
- Trainers for indoor PE. Studded boots for outdoor PE. Astros or trainers are not safe enough during football lessons. We advise students to bring both their trainers and studded boots to each lesson, so they always have them on hand.
- Blue football socks (cheaply available at sports direct) for both indoor and outdoor PE.
- Samurai shorts, t-shirt, tracksuit trousers and track suit top.
- For outdoor PE, students can wear additional t-shirts, gloves, and leggings / skins under their PE kit. Tights are not to be worn during PE.
- Towel for all lessons.
