PE and Sport Premium

At Thornhill School we take pride in the inclusive and varied nature of our sports’ provision.

We use our money carefully and thoughtfully, to maximise opportunities for pupils and up-skill staff.  We also recognise that we live in an area with high levels of poor health and obesity and that good lifestyle habits should be taught early to become ingrained.

Twice yearly meetings help to coordinate funding and highlight areas for development.

The key impact of our funding has been on:

  • Participation for all
  • Early years physical development
  • Healthy eating
  • Embracing the outdoors in our locality
  • Engaging parents and carers in sport
  • Helping staff to develop confidence
  • Offering a wide variety of sports has engaged pupils

We believe that by highlighting a range of sports and healthy eating choices, we can provide an alternative to negative attitudes to activity/ healthy lifestyles held in the community. We have embraced the ‘Phunky foods’ initiative as part of this process and three years later we are still working together with positive teaching and learning for both staff and pupils.

Platinum School Games Mark Award

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward and recognise school engagement in The School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active.

 

We were delighted to have received The Platinum Award in 2022 in recognition of our commitment to maintain consistently high standards with our school sport provision.  We are also very proud of our pupils and staff for showing such enthusiasm, commitment and continued dedication to all aspects of school sport and exercise.

We believe it is a fantastic achievement and reflects the standard and variety of school sport and healthy lifestyles undertaken throughout the year.  Well done to all staff and pupils .

PE and Sports Funding

Our PE Curriculum allows us to develop our pupils’ knowledge and skills in variety of ways:

  • Team work
  • Resilience and perseverance
  • Success and failure
  • Sportsmanship
  • Risk taking
  • Self-awareness
  • Health-awareness
  • Fine and gross motor skills
  • Co-ordination
  • Knowledge of the rules and skills for particular sports

Moreover we believe that high quality PE lessons can support a life-long love of sport and we have close links with local clubs, encouraging our pupils to continue with sport out of school. Our timetable includes a weekly session with a qualified coach and we also have coaches into school through-out the year to teach additional sessions prior to an event or competition. Sports Premium funding is also used to fund coaching in short blocks. For example to teach archery.

As a school, our pupils enjoy a ten week block of swimming from Year 1, every year through to Year 4, able swimmers are then given advanced swimming classes in Year 5 and 6. This allows for skills to develop with maturity and for the refinement of strokes. As our school is in an area which contains a great deal of water- both the sea and rivers and streams, we believe it essential that our children have confidence in water and be able to perform self-rescue should the need arise.

Our yearly sports day is the highlight of a yearly calendar of sporting events which include competitions, showcase events and coaching. At sports day, all pupils are expected to take part in athletics events and families are invited to show support.