Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency

At St Breock Primary School, we shared the objectives of the Cornwall Partnership. We wanted to increase pupils’ engagement in PESS and encourage them to be more focused in PE lessons. We also wanted to improve pupils’ concentration levels throughout the day and prepare them better for learning in subjects across the curriculum.

What did we do?

We introduced a much wider range of out-of-school clubs and activities and brought in professional coaches to run some of these. We now offer 12 choices, including three for key stage 1 pupils. Using sponsorship from parents, we invested in new resources, including kit for football and tag rugby, and juggling equipment (following a circus skills workshop).

We won a bid for £200 of funding from North Cornwall District Council to run a parent and child club under the ‘Health in the Community’ scheme. As part of this, we provided coaches for half a term of taekwondo and half a term of aerobics for parents and children to participate in together.

We use core tasks for PE lessons and introduced ‘child-speak’ to enable pupils to track their progress and give them a better understanding of what was expected of them. We bought digital cameras and projectors for each class and ran several ICT and PE-based training sessions to ensure that teachers were using the resources consistently. To demonstrate high quality, we started collecting a library of video clips of pupils performing activities that they had done in the previous year. We then show these to the younger pupils and record them performing the same activity to encourage comparison and constructive feedback.

We introduced a Wake Up dance routine in the morning. Key stage 2 pupils take part in this outside, using playground music stations that we have provided. Key stage 1 pupils take part in their own classroom, led by year 3 pupils who devise the routines and teach them to the whole school. We also introduced brain gym first thing in the morning to focus the pupils and prepare them for learning. We set aside a special area in each classroom where pupils can ‘top-up’ their concentration exercises whenever they feel they need to. We started to offer a ten-minute activity as a reward for good behaviour and the pupils always choose something PE-based.

We had already introduced a Huff n’ Puff scheme, but it was unsupervised and fizzled out through lack of proper organisation. To improve playtimes, we encouraged pupils to apply to be playground leaders and to organise and run sports activities in the playground. Now a quarter of our key stage 2 pupils are leaders (including a group of previously disruptive year 4 girls). Fifteen are on duty each day, dividing themselves between the key stage 1 and key stage 2 playgrounds. Activities are offered on a rota basis, ensuring plenty of variety. When we had a skipping workshop in school, the coaches gave the playground leaders training to help them plan activities.

We have recently secured £2000 of funding to develop our playground by building an assault course and painting new markings for activities.

What difference did we make?

Before we got involved in the PESS project, pupils were generally unenthusiastic about PE. At every lesson we would be faced with two or three pupils who had either forgotten their kit or had a poor excuse for missing the lesson. It became apparent that the pupils had low motivation and many simply couldn’t see the purpose of PE. In a survey, very few pupils said that PE was their favourite subject. Lack of consistent lesson planning left our PE provision disorganised and disjointed.

Following the changes we have made to PE lessons, the pupils are now much more motivated and engaged. There are very few incidences of missing kit and they all want to participate in all activities. The child-speak objectives are helping them to structure their own learning and keep track of their progress. Teaching staff are more aware of the importance of PE within the curriculum and are quick to integrate PE and healthy living issues across all subjects. Many pupils now say that PE is one of their favourite subjects.

The use of ICT has improved pupils’ progress in PE considerably. The video clips of older pupils are particularly successful – the pupils are motivated by seeing children of a similar age performing with high quality. Watching recordings of their own performance has improved their evaluation skills.

Participation in out-of-school clubs has increased dramatically:

• 7 per cent of reception children attend a club
• 50 per cent of year 1 pupils attend
• 50 per cent of year 2 pupils attend
• 89 per cent of year 3 pupils attend
• 77 per cent of year 4 pupils attend
• 77 per cent of year 5 pupils attend
• 66 per cent of year 6 pupils attend.

Most of these pupils attend more than one club. Enthusiasm is continuing to grow and the pupils are developing new social skills through mixing with other year groups during these activities.

In the past, playtimes were chaotic. Pupils had no direction and fought over the little fixed equipment we had. There was an almost tangible divide between key stage 1 and 2 pupils and intolerance for the lower school spilt over into the rest of the school day. As a result of our playground leaders scheme, playtimes are now ordered, calm and great fun for all pupils. Many of the pupils who were causing trouble are now leaders themselves and are channelling their energy into organising activities. The activities on offer are bridging the gap between the key stages, with the whole school now playing (and working) together much more cooperatively.

Pupils’ concentration has also improved considerably as a result of the Wake Up and brain gym activities. There used to be a particular problem with concentration first thing in the morning and after lunch, which made classes chaotic and difficult to settle. Now lessons are rarely disrupted and a new level of attention is maintained throughout the day. Before we introduced the activities, results for scissor and reverse number tests were recorded as 67 per cent and 45 per cent. After just one term of Wake Up and brain gym, these results rose to 87 per cent and 67 per cent.

How did we collect information?

We collected information to show the success of this work by:

• taking baseline studies in various tasks to compare the progress made
• surveying the pupils to gauge their changing attitudes to PE
• discussing pupils’ progress at staff meetings
• having meetings with lunchtime supervisors to track behaviour and pupils’ attitudes
• monitoring and evaluating PE lessons twice a year
• collecting pupils’ feedback on their own achievements in lessons using a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ indicator.