At Smithdown Primary School, together we grow as healthy, active, and confident learners. We believe that high-quality Physical Education (PE) is vital in developing not only physical competence, but also personal wellbeing, teamwork, and character.
Through an inclusive and ambitious PE curriculum, we aim to inspire every child to enjoy physical activity, build healthy habits for life, and recognise the link between physical and mental wellbeing. We want all children to experience success, develop resilience, and understand that sport is for everyone — regardless of ability or background.
Our PE curriculum is designed to:
Promote enthusiasm, enjoyment and success through active participation.
Improve physical skills, fitness and coordination, and celebrate personal progress.
Develop understanding of the body’s needs and the importance of a healthy, active lifestyle.
Embed values such as fairness, respect, perseverance and teamwork.
Encourage self-discipline, confidence and creativity through movement.
Provide opportunities for all children to take part in competitive sport both within and beyond school.
PE at Smithdown is delivered through a carefully planned curriculum that ensures breadth, progression and inclusion from EYFS to Year 6. Each year group participates in a lesson of high-quality, physical activity per week, delivered by the class teacher or specialist sports coach (alongside the class teacher). This is supplemented by physical / sporting activities offered through breakfast club and after school clubs.
In the Early Years, children explore movement, coordination and balance through play, dance and outdoor activities, laying the foundations for lifelong physical development.
In Key Stage 1, pupils develop fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, throwing, catching, balance and agility. They begin to engage in simple team games and learn about cooperation and fair play.
In Key Stage 2, pupils apply these skills in a wider range of sports and activities, including gymnastics, athletics, dance, swimming, and team games. They learn the importance of tactics, performance analysis and sportsmanship.
Our PE provision is enhanced by:
Specialist coaching, ensuring high-quality skill progression and motivation.
A broad range of extra-curricular clubs including football, athletics, dance, gymnastics and more.
Intra- and inter-school competitions, supported through our successful School Games programme.
Swimming lessons for all pupils in Key Stage 2, ensuring water confidence and safety.
Sports leaders in upper Key Stage 2, who promote active playtimes and act as role models for younger children.
We are proud to have achieved the Gold School Games Mark, recognising our commitment to participation, inclusion and sporting excellence.
Assessment in PE focuses on pupils’ physical skills, personal growth and attitude. Teachers and coaches monitor progress through observation, discussion and pupil reflection, ensuring that all children are challenged appropriately and celebrate their achievements.
By the time pupils leave Smithdown, they:
Demonstrate a secure understanding of how to stay fit, healthy and active.
Show competence and confidence in a wide range of physical activities.
Display positive sporting attitudes — fairness, respect, perseverance and teamwork.
Understand the importance of physical activity for both physical and mental health.
Participate in competitions with pride and resilience, whether winning or losing.
Are motivated to continue enjoying sport and active lifestyles beyond primary school.
Through Physical Education, our children learn much more than physical skills — they build friendships, confidence and character. They develop the mindset to challenge themselves, support others and live healthy, balanced lives — truly living out our motto, “Together We Grow.”
Reporting PE and Sport Premium Grant Expenditure – Categories of Grant Spending
Reporting PE and Sport Premium Grant Expenditure – Opportunities, impacts and sustainability
What a fantastic sports day we had! The children showed incredible determination, enthusiasm and sportsmanship. They worked hard and encouraged one another, which showed the true meaning of teamwork. ⭐️ We are so proud of the effort, resilience and positive attitudes displayed by everyone. Well done to everyone who took park and helped make it such a success🎖
Also, a big thank you to anyone who joined to support the children – we hope you all enjoyed it! 😊
This superstar has won lots of medals for swimming competitions with her club! Keep up the hard work.
We have been playing a game called busy bees today. We have been collecting pollen to put into the beehive. We used our fingers to gently roll our ball around the hall.
Today in PE we played a game called spiders and butterflies. Next we had to be dung beatles and move a ball around the cones using our hands.
We had a wonderful day today watching the championship! The children cheered on the competitors and had a lot of fun. 
In P.E. this week, the children played a range of games that used their skills of attacking and defending.
Year 4 have been loving their P.E. sessions with Everton in the Community. This terms topic was ball skills with a focusing on passing and catching. Today, we played handball.
In PE we have been practicing some key skills. We have practiced moving, throwing and catching with increasing accuracy.
Year 6 have been working on fitness through circuit training. So many tired children after each session – getting fitter and stronger!
We loved our first gymnastics lesson. We focussed on 8 key balances.
We had our first circuit session today, lots of cardio and strength work AND lots of tired children at the end of it !
The winning team in our hockey tournament is THE GREEN TEAM 🟢🏒
It’s safe to say, we have some very competitive players in Y4.
We enjoyed following a variety of instructions to play games in PE on Friday.
Year 4 have been loving their P.E. lessons this half term. They have been learning the skills of hockey. We discussed that hockey is an invasion game and the aim is to invade the other teams space to score a goal. To begin, the children have been practising dribbling and controlling the ball to help prevent the opposition from retrieving it.
We had to listen to instructions and be a stomping gruffalo, a slithering snake, a tip toeing mouse , a flapping owl and a running fox.
Our topic this term has been fitness. We have been learning about running and what our arms and legs should look like. We have put this into practise for our dodgeball game, which is our favourite! 
To finish off this term, we played a game of golden ball. We continued with throwing, catching and how to move in team games.
Our Y6 boys did really well today, they were model sportsmen who were great ambassadors for our school AND they qualified for the quarter finals too! Great job boys 👏👏👏
We have been shaking different parts of our bodies fast and slow just like shaking skeletons.
How proud are we of our Year 6 girls, they won 6 out of 7 matches and have secured their place in the City Final! Lionesses in the making!
Each team had to score 21 EXACTLY! Which spots will they shoot from??
This week we are using equipment to help us retell Jack and the Beanstalk! 
#lsspcoachtom
We couldn’t be prouder of our Year 2 boys. They played some fantastic football today, winning every match on the way to the play off but unfortunatly losing 2-1 for a place in the city final. One of our superstars was even picked as player of the tournament. What a talented team you are.
Our first sporting event of the year was Dodgeball. This group of children represented our school like the superstars we knew they were and worked so hard to prefect some new dodgeball skills. We are very proud of you.
We have worded hard on our pass and move skills today and then applied our new skills into a game of handball with James from Everton in the Community.
On Friday we practiced the fundamental skills of listening and stopping and starting as we played The Beans Game, Corners and All the Fruits of the Market.
