Physical Education

The aim of Physical Education at St Thomas More is to instil lifelong engagement in sport and physical activity within our students. We create an environment that enables our students to understand and appreciate the benefits of leading a healthy active lifestyle.

We follow the National Curriculum for Physical Education. The role of the department is to develop competence and confidence for students in their activities, complemented by training in skills, tactics and performance analysis. Participation in PE helps students to learn about healthy, active lifestyles and how to be effective in performance and understand many situations from a front landing in Trampolining to problems solving in Orienteering.‍

‍

At Key Stage 3 ‍

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have 2 hours of PE a week. Students work towards targets through a variety of sports and activities such as outdoor activities/orienteering, outwitting opponents in invasion games, fitness & athletics and dance.

Year 9 students can undertake a first qualification/Level 1 Sports Leaders Award. Assessment in PE is an on-going process, conducted through formative and summative assessment. We focus on six Strands in PE which the students are assessed in across the three years in Key Stage 3: practical performance, teamwork and co-operation, leadership, healthy active lifestyle, personal, social responsibility and thinking and decision making.‍

‍

At Key Stage 4‍

BTEC First Award in Sport‍

Students at Year 10 and Year 11 have one hour of PE a week and work towards a healthy lifestyle through the Key Stage 4 National Curriculum. They also have the opportunity to do a Level 2 Sports Leader Award and further leadership and officiating qualifications.

A BTEC First Award in Sport is offered which helps students to develop a practical understanding of the sociology, physiology and psychology of sport in society.

The course consists of four units, two core units and two optional units. The core units are fitness for sports & exercise and practical sports performance. The entire course is coursework-based apart from the core unit of fitness for sports & exercise, which is an online external examination. ‍

‍

Extra-curricular‍

The PE Department offers a wealth of extra-curricular activities to suit all interests, ages and abilities. Most of these are run after school and are free for all students. These include netball, dance, rock climbing, trampolining, basketball, girls’ football, boys’ football, table tennis, volleyball, running club and fitness club. Regular inter-house competitions are run in many sports and a sports day is held in the summer term.

We are also very active in competitions and activities outside of the school, playing team games against other schools within the Triborough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster, as well as participating in the RBKC School Games Festival and competitions.