"Leaders have designed the PE curriculum to be fully inclusive and pupils enjoy a vast range of sporting activities that include lacrosse, Gaelic football, ballroom dance and cheerleading."

(Ofsted, May 2019) 

Physical Education is taught as a discrete subject through a range of competitive sports and games and physical education activities such as gymnastics and dance. Over the course of their school career, pupils will have the opportunity to play football, netball, hockey, tennis, cricket, basketball, rounders and take part in a range of athletic disciplines. We even play dodgeball. Children in Year 5 all have swimming lessons, taught by qualified coaches, and they take part in cycling proficiency through 'Bikeability'.

Pupils have two hours of timetabled PE each week. In addition to lessons during curriculum time, our extra-curricular offer is a good way to broaden the opportunities for our children to learn new skills and be active. Pupils have the opportunity to join one of our successful sports clubs, possibly representing the school in tournaments. We pride ourselves on offering unique sporting experiences; these include: ballroom dancing, Gaelic football, judo, cheerleading and lacrosse. Our children are taught the importance of winning and losing and the importance of competitive and team sports.

Obesity, healthy eating & physical activity

Childhood obesity is one of the pressing issues of our generation. By the start of primary school, almost a quarter of children in England are overweight or obese. This rises to over a third by the time children leave Year 6. Obesity in children starting Reception has risen for the second year in a row nationally. The government has published an obesity strategy which Ofsted report on.

Schools have an important role to play in reinforcing the importance of choices that lead to better health. At St Dominic Savio our curriculum gives children a solid body of knowledge about healthy living and the skill to pursue it. Children learn how our bodies work, why physical health is important and how to prepare food. They grow in competence in sport and physical pursuits - being active is a real enjoyment at our school. We prioritise these opportunities at lunchtimes. We have continual access to cold drinking water stations around the school building.

Aims

• Plan a challenging and well-sequenced curriculum, including learning about the body in PE, and science about healthy eating and cooking

• Provide ample opportunity for children to take physical exercise during the school day – with lots of opportunities to ‘get out of breath’

• Teach particular skills like how to cook or how to dance

• Update parents on their children’s physical development such as agility, balance and coordination.

School Food Plan

The government's strategy was published in 2013. All children aged 4 to 7 (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) are entitled to free hot meals every day in England. We provide this service at St Dominic Savio.

"Healthy school meals only contribute to a healthy lifestyle if children eat them. Take-up of school food nationally remains stubbornly low, at 43%: 57% of children are not eating school lunches at all. However, eating school dinners is better for pupils and more effective economy for schools. Average take-up of school dinners needs to be at least 50% for the school food service to break even. Subsidising low take-up costs local authorities or the schools themselves £140 million a year. The government is therefore keen to encourage more parents to take advantage of school dinners.

"This state of affairs is neither desirable nor necessary. Parents currently spend almost £1 billion a year on packed lunches; persuading just a fraction of them to switch to school food would make the system solvent again (and their children healthier)."

Our children only consume water at school during the day - please do not provide your child with any juices in their packed lunch. As always, we encourage our children to eat a hot lunch at school.

Scoot to School

We are proud to be connected with Micro Scooters who have kindly donated a mix of  2 wheel scooters and  3 wheeled scooters along with new scooter helmets for our children to use. The company also run a ScooterAid scheme whereby they revamp old/unwanted Micro Scooters and send them to good causes across the country – giving thousands of children who may otherwise miss out the chance to play. If you have a scooter you would like to donate the scheme, please get in touch with Micro Scooters.

The company provides free scooter training advice for parents and carers which can be accessed at micro-scooters.co.uk.

We are delighted to offer our pupils scooter safety sessions teaching children to scoot safely and politely, ensuring they are respectful of other members of the public and aware of how to keep themselves and others safe. We hope this will encourage more families to get out in to the fresh air, whether on the walk to and from school, or in free time. 

We have scooter and bike storage options at school.