Physical Education

Physical Education provides the pupils with unique opportunities to learn in, and through, the physical.  This includes developing personal fitness and promoting a lifelong active healthy lifestyle.  Our PE intent is structured through Head, Heart, Hands which provides a holistic approach to develop the whole pupil understanding the benefits of incorporating social and emotional learning into the PE curriculum.

Our King James PE department is made up of seven specialist teachers delivering all of the curriculum PE lessons for years 5-11.  Four of the team actually went to the school themselves and have now returned to provide the pupils with the same memorable experiences that they had.  Pupils in years 5-7 receive their lessons as a form group. Years 8-11 are grouped depending on a number of variables to try to provide the best possible learning experience.  This ranges from single sex groups, ability sets and pupil choice of activity.

Our Curriculum

The PE curriculum provides a broad and balanced delivery where sport is the vehicle for the implementation.  It is made up of eighteen activities ranging from traditional sports to some of the more modern and unusual including Dodgeball, Golf and Kabbadi.  The school's excellent facilities and partnership with neighbouring Royston leisure centre enable the wide range of sports to be delivered.  Each unit of work strives to challenge and develop pupils by providing them with opportunities to achieve their personal best in each of the Head, Heart, Hands strands.  There is a clear path of progression for each topic as it is consolidated and then developed the following academic year.  Pupils can opt to undertake the GCSE in addition to their core PE lessons at KS4.

To view a copy of the OCR PE curriculum click here.

Assessment in Physical Education

Our rigorous PE assessment process enables pupils progress to be tracked through each unit completed for each of the Head, Heart, Hands strands (see here).  Pupils assessment grades are recorded and shared with pupils and parents each half-term to help them track the progress that is being made.   A copy of examplar exam papers for KS4 can be viewed at the OCR link given above.  The topics taught in KS3 and the assessments can be viewed below:

• Year 7 

• Year 8

• Year 9

King James have developed excellent relationships with other schools where opportunities for sharing good practice and moderations enable an ongoing  process of reviewing, developing and improving our curriculum.  In particular a number of practical GCSE sessions allow accurate and reliable grading towards the pupils final grades. 

School sport plays a huge part in many of our pupils' journeys at King James.  Our extra curricular programme provides pupils with opportunities to further develop their knowledge and skills in each of the units they receive within the curriculum.  Clubs are available to all pupils at no additional cost enabling every pupil to follow their passion for their preferred sports.  House competitions allow pupils to experience the next level of competition from the curriculum.  Pupils that show a commitment to extra curricualr clubs are also then provided with opportunities to represent the school in inter school competition including at District, County, Regional and National level where we have won two national titles.  Ongoing partnerships with many local community sports clubs and coaches enables pupils to be directed outside of school to further develop their sporting experiences.  These pathways have led to many pupils flourishing in and out of school.  

At King James we have a school sports committee represented by boys and girls from all year groups.  Meetings provide opportunities for pupils to feedback on the curriculum and clubs as well as a chance for suggestions for future developments.  In addition to this regular opportunities for pupil voice through whole key stage surveys enable the PE department to keep in touch with the pupils thoughts and feelings about their experiences in PE and School Sport.

As the Hub site for the North East Hertfordshire School Sports Partnership, King James are able to work alongside the local first schools to support their PE curriculum organisation and delivery.  The partnership also provides many opportunities for the first school pupils to visit King James for festivals and sporting events where they work alongside our sports leaders, which assists with the pupils’ transition from year 4 to year 5 at King James and what we hope will be the start of a wonderful journey.