Aims, objectives and ethos   

The Sport Department’s philosophy is Participation – Progression – Performance. We aim to enable all students to find suitable activities, but also generate a platform for those who wish to strive for high performance. We demand a range of qualities from our sportsmen and promote the qualities of Respect, Resilience, Responsibility and Love of Learning. Our teaching and coaching team believes that Physical Education is about inspiring students and providing them with the all-round skills needed to allow them to participate in sport for the rest of their lives. As they acquire and skills required in a number of sports, students are encouraged to develop the Key Concepts of Replicating Skills, Outwitting Opponents, Evaluating and Improving and Personal Development.  

Our students also take part in Health-Related Exercise and Fitness. This programme develops an understanding of how to exercise the body efficiently, giving our students an idea of the kind of exercise they should regularly be undertaking, to keep them fit and healthy, as well as an understanding of how physical conditioning relates to improved performance. Students enjoy four periods of high intensity, high quality Physical Education per two-week block. All students are fitness tested at the end of Autumn and Spring term. This helps to identify areas that require development, students who have made substantial improvements, and those athletes capable of reaching high performance. At AGSB we aim to fulfil each student’s potential, alongside skill development, we aspire to grow character and encourage our students to develop resilience, respect, responsibility and a love of learning.   

As well as each individual developing their potential in each unit of work, we also are conscious of identifying talent and encouraging all students to take part in our broad extra-curricular programme. We are exceptionally proud of the scale of provision and of the high-quality coaching. We enjoy regional and National success in a number of sports and aim to encourage all pupils to take up extra-curricular opportunities to encourage a life-long love of sport and to build on our success. Many of our athletes go on to represent the school in a range of competitions and to enjoy district, County and National representation in their sport. We celebrate success through our Twitter and Instagram pages, assemblies and our sports presentation evenings. We value every contribution to AGSB sport and encourage our students to play with discipline and pride, learn from defeat and collectively enjoy our success.   

Staffing and structure  

• The department is staffed by 6 full time members of staff and one part time (the rest of timetable in Maths).   

• There are two HODs – one for curricular and one for extra-curricular   

• The timetable is two weeks, with 25 periods in each week.   

• In addition to the curricular commitments, each member of staff has responsibility for one or more AGSB sport’s team and the management of their fixtures (both Saturday and cup).   

• We have a full-time groundsman (Mr G. Heathcote) and employ several external coaches.   

• In addition to the external coaches, we also have members of AGSB staff and parents who volunteer to coach teams at fixtures – although they do not coach mid-week they do allow us to extend our fixture diary.    

• We also have a PE intern and regularly accept student teachers from MMU      

Curricular structure   

KS3    

• PE follows a 3-year curriculum. Broad traditional programme of study that aligns with the main traditional summer and winter sports. These sports all feed into our extra-curricular provision and align with the sports teams we enjoy regional and national success in.    

• PE department sets all groups by ability following a rigorous and thorough Baselining process (due to lack of accurate KS2 data). We also do an inventory on SEND, medical and talent ID during the year 6 transition day.   

• Assessment at KS3 is based upon a FEDS programme and the pupils are marked on a flightpath for each sport and overall ability. Each unit of work is organised so pupils can show their ability to perform techniques and their effectiveness in games situations. Teachers have an online mark book to record progress in each lesson.  They also are graded from 1-5 (1 highest) on their attitude to learning.    

KS4    

• PE at KS4 continues a traditional programme of study but includes some units that are only for KS4 pupils. The Intent of the KS4 curriculum is to provide shorter, more active, competitive unit of work which should increase activity levels. This is to empower and impassion participation outside the curriculum to increase health and fitness and educate pupils on the importance of lifelong participation in physical recreation/sport.    

• Assessment at KS4 is based on their attitude to learning.       

Year 9&10 Fast Track GCSE PE   

• At the end of year 8 pupils are invited to join the Fast Track PE set (usually for the set one pupils – but an open, honest and fair suitability assessment is made with pupils and parents as to whether it is appropriate). This is to provide additional opportunity and further challenge for our highest performing students.    

• The course runs over two years, with the awarding of their GCSE at the end of Year 10. This means that it is not an option in Year 9 and therefore allows more pupils to access the opportunity.   

• The course runs in normal curriculum time, with 3 theory lessons and 1 practical. The justification for the lack of practical activity is that the students are already highly involved in sport both inside and outside of school and we monitor their activity levels and commitment to extra-curricular clubs.    

• Results are exceptionally good. Last year the cohort of 50 pupils – 60% got a grade 9, 85% a 9/8, 97% 9-7 and 100% 9-6. This compares with the national average of 3.4% - 9, 9.8% - 9/8, 19.7% 9/7 and 36.7% 9-6.   We are currently the highest performing BASS school in the country.   

• The pupils return to core PE in Y11 and the students who are interested in A2 PE are given an enrichment programme, including bringing speakers in and a University visit to highlight pathways in academic PE.   

KS5   

• The KS5 core provision is one hour of curriculum physical recreation a week. It takes place on a Wednesday afternoon. The ethos is fun, engagement, catharsis and is an integral part of the enrichment provision for our 6th form.     

A2   

• We have a very pleasing retention to A Level PE, which is particularly good in the context of the school going from 4 to 3 A Levels. This is a very academic school and therefore the fact that we have such good retention is a real accolade to the department.   

• Results are excellent at A Level – last year 50% of students achieved an A*, 83% A*/A and 100% A*/B.  We are currently the highest perming BASS school in the country.   

• Highlighted Intent of A2 PE is to educate on; Career Pathways, transferrable skills, low ratio support/intervention and to foster and engage pupils in an environment with tangible ‘Love of Learning’