FACULTY LEADER: Mr D Curtis

This is a dynamic, forward thinking faculty comprising six full time specialist teachers and a technician, working hard to provide a varied, stimulating curriculum. We firmly believe in ‘sport for all’ and strive to deliver a broad and balanced programme to our students. Examination level Physical Education has been very successful in recent years, giving our talented students the chance to succeed further. We have a strong tradition within the area for developing young talent through curricular and extra curricular activities and we are committed to maintaining these high expectations.

PE Learning Journey

Characteristics of a high quality PE lesson

Vision Poster for PE Scholar

KS3 Curriculum

Students in KS3 have two one-hour lessons per week. Students follow a timetabled course with a variety of activities, ranging from swimming, gymnastics and badminton to rugby and netball. Students in KS3 are taught in groups of boys or girls and grouped by ability.

KS3 example carousel of activities:

The KS3 programme of work is uploaded below.

KS4 and KS5 Curriculum

In KS4 core Physical Education, students have three one-hour lessons per fortnight. Students are given the opportunity to choose which activities they would like to take part in across the school year. In general, they can select from a choice of 5 activities each half term. They may opt for traditional activities such as football, netball, hockey, rugby, swimming and cricket, as well as new and exciting activities such as American football, Bokwa, martial arts, mixed netball, dodgeball, table tennis, Club Energy Gym, squash and the Junior Sports Leadership Award (JSLA).

At Prince Henry's, we offer this especially varied and wide-ranging KS4 PE programme as we look to promote lifelong participation in a healthy and active lifestyle. Students are encouraged to develop knowledge and understanding as well as communication, coaching, organisation and leadership skills in a fun, physically active environment, which caters for all abilities, whether Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced. The KS4 programme of work for 2021-2022 is uploaded below.

At KS4, students can also opt to take Physical Education as a GCSE course. They study the AQA specification and results have been consistently high. We deliver the course in five lessons (additional to core PE) over two weeks with one practical lesson and four theory lessons.  

At KS5, students have the opportunity to study A level Physical Education (AQA). This gives them the opportunity to be assessed on both practical and theory PE at an advanced level. We also offer Edexcel Level 3 BTEC Sport. BTEC students are assessed in various modules over a two year period, based on units of coursework, and sit a formal examination in one of those units.

Please see the Key Stage 4 Options and Sixth Form pages for details of the KS4 and KS5 courses offered by the PE faculty, including our Excellence in Sport and Education programme for Sixth Formers. 

Assessment

Assessment in PE comes in various guises. This can vary enormously between core practical PE lessons and theoretical teaching in the classroom for examination PE.

Key Stage 3 Core PE

Assessment takes place in every core PE lesson throughout KS3. The faculty now used pre-planned strength and conditioning warm ups to help embed knowledge. They use differentiated student learning plans (SLPs) to provide an outline of the learning objectives for each practical lesson, which are referred to throughout. These are introduced at the start of the lesson and students reflect against these targets to self or peer-assess their progress as both assessment for and of learning. Peer observation and demonstrations are used for assessment as learning. Students are often then challenged to apply their knowledge and skills under increasing amounts of pressure as both assessment as and of learning. Generally, the first lesson of the week would be used to introduce a skill, then the second lesson will be used to apply the skill in competitive situations. Knowledge organisers are used in some activities to help students embed their knowledge through deeper understanding of rules, tactics and fitness components. At the end of an activity block, assessment of learning takes place to look at how much learning has occurred throughout that activity block, through final competitive application. There is also an assessment of learning recorded three times a year in the form of progress reports.

Key Stage 4 Core PE

Assessment takes place in a more informal way in KS4 core PE. The emphasis is on participation and enjoyment. Staff use questioning and observation as tools for assessment of and for learning. Discussion and peer observations/demonstrations are also used for assessment as learning. There are some blocks of KS4 core PE which are used specifically to support practical assessment for GCSE PE. These lessons would involve more formal Q and A, peer and self-assessment against specific performance criteria. There is also an assessment of learning recorded three times a year in the form of progress reports.

Examination PE

There are clear assessment strategies within examination PE. Brain in gear tasks are used to start most lessons to ensure students engage in learning as they arrive. These tasks are used in a variety of ways to assess for, as and of learning. A variety of questioning is used to challenge the range of abilities in assessment for and of learning. Students regularly have to apply their knowledge to questions and scenarios as a form of assessment as learning every fortnight (although longer, continuous prose responses are not assessed until the students have the knowledge and skills in place). The online everlearner resource is used regularly as assessment for, as and of learning in GCSE, A Level and some BTEC units. Assessment of learning takes place half-termly in GCSE and A Level at a suitable point for the cohort and the programme of study, also taking into account the progress report windows. Assessment of learning takes place in BTEC through the end of topic/unit assignment briefs, which vary in timescale depending on guided learning hours. Final external assessments take place in January and June each year in BTEC and at the end of the course in GCSE/A Level. Students in GCSE and A Level are shown exemplar NEA work as well as common mistakes before producing their own work. Feedback is in line with exam board expectations.

Enrichment

The PE faculty and several members of staff at Prince Henry’s offer a wide variety of extra-curricular activities. These range from the competitive sports such as netball, rugby, football, athletics, cross country and swimming to gymnastics, girls' rugby, dance, rowing, table tennis and badminton.

Teams are entered in the local school leagues and our netball and rugby teams have done particularly well at Regional and National level respectively. Students who show potential in these activities are nominated for representative honours and a significant number of our students are representing Prince Henry’s at City, County or National level.

There are close and well-established links with local sports clubs including the Otliensians (Old Scholars) Rugby and Hockey Clubs, Otley RUFC, Otley Cricket Club, Otley Badminton Club, Otley AC, Otley Town FC and Skyrac AC, to name but a few. The school’s facilities are used by some of these organisations in the evening and at the weekend.