Physical Education

Our St Mary's Sporting Mission

At St Mary's we love keeping active and fitness of our learners is a HUGE priority! 

Our mission is to keep children fit in a safe, secure and sporting manner.

We encourage competition when it is appropriate and believe in participating in a wide variety of sports. We want children to experience as many different sports as possible so that they will be able to develop a love of at least one that may stick with them for later life. Research shows the benefits of living a physically active life supports both physical and mental health for your entire life. So... let's get moving!

We will try when possible to get some experts in as and where possible but some of this really depends on the Covid19 restrictions. For now, we have to adapt to support the needs of our pupils. We have identified core fitness as the starting point for our leaners before we go to develop specific skills and sports.

Lessons

Early Year's Physical Development

The children in Early Years have access to a range of equipment to develop their gross-motor skills. These include (but are not limited to): balance bicycles and tricycles, scooters, hoops and balls for developing  hand/eye coordination skills. 

To develop their fine-motor skills, the children take part in daily 'Dough Disco' sessions alongside 'finger gym' exercises. 

 Children in reception also take part in a weekly physical education session with Grimsby Town Football Club. 

Festivals and Tournaments

Covid-19

 Due to Covid-19 we are unable to compete in any festivals or tournaments. Therefore, we have given the children in Key Stage 1 and 2 their own skipping ropes. In the afternoon for a 10-15 minute period they are able to learn skipping. There are plenty of skipping skills that the children can develop and refine. They are making excellent progress so far! Each class will eventually complete their own routine in an intra-school skipping festival.

Sports Activities

Sports Apprentice and Sporting Playground Leaders

This year’s Sports Leaders have been given the opportunity to train with Mr. Legg to really practise their leadership skills. Mr. Legg is a former professional and current semi-professional football player. He is also a keen Aston Villa fan. Mr. Legg loves working with the children during lunchtimes providing them with playground games to keep them active whilst developing a love of sport.

He is also training a number of fully-skilled leaders to lead activities at lunchtimes.

Look out for their red lanyards!

Grimsby Town Football Club

We have two coaches that join the children in Key Stage 1 and 2 once per week for both sport and PHSE. The children learn both practical and mental skills that boost their confidence in both sport and social health. They are currently learning how to be effective team players and developing their fitness skills after Covid19. We are hoping to improve their baseline level of fitness. Click the badge below for more information.

When Covid19 is over, we will be pledging our support to the above campaign. We want to give both boys and girls equal opportunities in sport, especially in regard of football. Watch this space! 

Swimming @ John Whitgift Academy

Currently, the national expectation is that children can swim 25m by the time that they leave St Mary's. Due to Covid19 we are still awaiting the go-ahead from our local pool to see if we can safely resume sessions. Watch this space to see when we are able to hit the water.