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Our next Parent Workshop will be on Thursday 22nd June at 9.45am. We will be sharing how we support children to develop their physical skills.
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Oaklands School

Making Learning Fun

Home Page

Oaklands School

Making Learning Fun

Physical Development

Whole School Intent

  • Build gross & fine motor skills to support all learning
  • Improve coordination, balance & grip · Develop children’s sharing of space & equipment building up to team games & shared play
Physical Development at a glance

Whole School Implementation

  • Planned PE lessons which link to daily focused outdoor learning sessions
  • Progressively challenging units over the school year Mastery learning approach
Across the Pathways
NurtureWillow and ElmCherry and Chestnut

Intent

  • Developing self-awareness and confidence in
  • sharing space in school
  • Encourage and support interaction with the world
  • around them.

 

Implementation

  • Sensory experiences
  • Planned PE sessions
  • Mastery learning approach
  • PD assessed via OPAL
  • EHCP outcomes where applicable
  • Learning powers: Explore, Connect and Persevere.

Intent 

  • Developing self-awareness and awareness of others 
  • Developing core strength to support good attention skills 
  • Developing fine motor skills to support good grip & tool use (cutlery; writing tools etc.)

 

Implementation

  • Sensory experiences
  • Planned PE sessions with linked outdoor learning consolidation
  • Mastery learning approach
  • PD assessed via OPAL
  • EHCP outcomes where applicable
  • Learning powers: Explore, Connect, Persevere and Feel.

Intent

  • Developing self-awareness and awareness of others
  • Developing core strength to support good attention skills
  • Developing fine motor skills to support good grip & tool use (cutlery; writing tools etc.)
  • Developing pupils’ peer play and teamwork skills
  • Developing pupils’ understanding of how to have a healthy life

 

Implementation

  • Planned PE sessions with linked outdoor learning consolidation Mastery learning approach
  • PD assessed via OPAL
  • EHCP outcomes where applicable
  • Learning powers: Explore, Connect, Persevere, Feel and Reflect

Curriculum Content

Oaklands Physical Education Curriculum – We have established an outline programme with flexible content that meets the core learning objectives we believe will

support children to develop essential skills and behaviours, culminating each Summer in team games & sports. This ensures that a child who is learning within one pathway for 6 years has opportunities to learn, practice, and over learn skills.

  • Dance Unit
  • Vestibular & Proprioception Unit
  • Circuits Unit (Balance & strength)
  • Striking & Kicking Unit
  • Running & Travelling Unit
  • Games Unit
  • Skills consoildation Unit
  • Individual sports units

 

Sensory Circuits - Sensory Circuits are delivered to every child in Willow and Cherry Pathways. The targeted approach was introduced around three clear 'zones’ of movement and sensory input. Sensory Circuits are targeted around children’s needs in terms of vestibular and proprioception input but also in terms of throwing, catching, jumping and this helps with some children’s sensory differences. It also has a calming section which helps with the children reflecting. Circuits are delivered for 20-30 minutes a week and are adapted by teachers to ensure they are matched to children’s strengths and developmental needs. Staff have been guided by OTs and SALT to create sensory circuits that are bespoke to meet our children’s needs and offer personalised support within a group session. Sensory need-based circuits are advocated by many Occupational Therapists.

 

Dough Disco - Dough disco involves moulding play dough in time to music and performing different actions such as rolling it into a ball, flattening it, putting each individual finger into the dough, rolling it into a sausage and squeezing it. This is exercise for the fingers to improve fine motor control and gross motor skills. Children and adults need to have strong muscles in their hands to enable them to write effectively. Doing these simple, fun exercises will help your child prepare for writing. Children at Oaklands have the opportunity to partake in this daily if they require the extra support to improve the fine motor control and is usually accessed during literacy lessons.

 

Big Moves (being introduced 2022-2023) - The BIG MOVES Developmental Movement Intervention Programme has been created to help the growing numbers of children in schools, whose delayed physical development is a very real barrier to listening and concentration, learning success and appropriate behaviour. It is recognised that more than 80% of children have some kind of movement development issues when measured against national milestones, and children are becoming increasingly inactive. The programme involves daily floor based activities in the hall which requires PE mats and are based on normal human movement patterns. The programme should last 15-20 mins a day and is for an initial 6 week block with another block of 6 weeks if required.

 

Yoga - Yoga and mindfulness have been shown to improve both physical and mental health in school-age children (ages 6 to 12). Yoga improves balance, strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity in children. Yoga and mindfulness offer psychological benefits for children and a growing body of research suggests that yoga can improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, and classroom behaviour, and can even reduce anxiety and stress in children. At Oaklands, children have the option of daily Yoga and mindfulness sessions that use Cosmic Yoga videos to improve their balance and strength as well as improving focus, self-esteem and reducing anxiety. Curriculum overviews and planning have been developed as appropriate for each pathway. The typical time budget for each pathway, including embedded practice and ‘teachable moments’ is as follows:

NurtureWillow and ElmCherry and Chestnut

Largely child-led learning means strict division of time into subject sessions is not a useful metric

  • 2hrs per week of PE including valuable dressing & undressing time
  • Daily 15 minute taught Outdoor Learning sessions Frequent hand grip session such as Dough Disco
  • 3 weekly Explore sessions on the climbing frame
  • 2hrs per week of PE including valuable dressing & undressing time
  • Daily 15 minute taught Outdoor Learning sessions Frequent hand grip session such as Dough Disco
  • 3 weekly Explore sessions on the climbing frame

Resources, Training and CPD

Association for Physical Education is useful for everything related to physical development.

Lots of useful blogs and papers on the website.

AfPE Swim England’s Website Everything you need for Primary Swimming lessons as well as the Swim Awards we follow.

YST (Youth Sports Trust) has lots of great resources for SEND PE lessons. We have a log in as a school (if anyone wants it, please ask).

 

Staff CPD-see staff share & OneDrive CPD folders: Planning and advice guides linked to PE, Outdoor Learning, Gross and Fine Motor Skills

Supporting Physical Development in Early Childhood https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/supporting-physical-development-early-childhood/1?domain=futurelearn.com 

Strengths

  • Children have many opportunities weekly to develop a range of gross & fine
  • motor skills
  • Subject specialist has devised exemplar curriculum based on research & good
  • practice
  • Swimmers are now following national swim awards curriculum
  • Students are making progress in their PD OPAL ladders

Areas for Development

  • Developing the Outdoor Learning links within the PE curriculum
  • Ensuring that good practice within strategies such as Big Moves and sensory
  • circuits can be embedded in Oaklands’ provision
  • Setting up a SIT team so that teams can improve their depth of knowledge and share this with the whole school

 

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