Physical Education

Curriculum Statement

At Friern Barnet School, we want every child to enjoy coming to their PE lessons and taking part in an active, healthy, interesting learning environment.

We aim to give our students knowledge of a wide variety of sports so that when they are older and have left school, they feel physically educated enough to carry on doing some form of physical activity: whether that be in a local gym, a football team, a netball club, a gymnastics club, trampolining club, basketball club, athletics club, cricket team or in fact, any type of physical activity which will benefit their fitness and health.

At Key Stage 3, all students follow a broad and balanced curriculum, with 2 PE lessons every week. Units of work last for 4 or 5 weeks. In Year 7, PE lessons are taught in their form groups to provide opportunities for the students to learn how to work as a team and start to build social bonds. In Year 8, students are then mixed into three equal ability groups. We have found that this delay in setting by ability encourages more lower ability students, who may feel demoralised by being placed in a lower set, more time to develop a love for physical activity and to take part in the many extracurricular opportunities on offer.

The Key Stage 3 curriculum is closely linked to the practical element of the GCSE in Physical Education (30% practical, 10% coursework based on a Fitness unit of work). The theory content is partially covered in Key Stage 3 PE lessons but in Key Stage 3, we believe PE should remain a practical activity and not be burdened unduly with worksheets and time spent away from taking part in physical activity. For many of our students, their PE lesson is the only form of exercise they get in their week. With the growing concern of declining physical activity levels for young people and childhood obesity increasing in our country, we feel that as much of each PE lesson must be spent on children actively participating in physical activity.

The sports that are usually assessed in GCSE PE are football, netball, basketball, trampolining, table tennis and badminton. These sports are all covered in our Key Stage 3 curriculum where students will learn the basic skills and tactics required for the GCSE. We have recently increased the number of sports covered in Key Stage 3 to give students a greater breadth of experiences. All students will now experience a short introduction in volleyball, hockey, handball and mini tennis. We offer an extensive extra-curricular programme here at Friern Barnet School for all age groups, where each day there will be at least one extra-curricular club running. We have also developed a co-curricular programme over the last 12 months, with paid professional coaches coming in to offer sessions at a very low price. 

Please email Mr Soave at p.soave@friern.barnet.sch.uk if you have any questions regarding Physical Education.