Sport Key Groups

All areas of our curriculum at Boldon School, is successfully adapted, designed and developed to be ambitious and meet the needs of all students. Each subject area develops their knowledge, skills and abilities to apply what they know and can do this with increasing fluency and independence.

Our teachers check pupils’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. They respond and adapt their teaching as necessary without unnecessarily elaborate or individualised approaches. This is to get the very best outcomes for our students whether they are SEND, disadvantaged or to challenge our higher ability students. This will ensure that students are ready for their next stage of education, employment or training to gain qualifications that allow them to go on to destinations that meet their interests and aspirations and the intention of their course of study.

How the sport Curriculum supports our SEND students:

The Department for Education states, ‘Children and young people with SEND all have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children and young people of the same age. These children and young people may need extra or different help from that given to others.’

Boldon School is an inclusive school where every student is encouraged to develop a thirst for knowledge, to enjoy their curriculum and feel valued as a member of our school community. We are committed to the progress, inclusion and resilience of each student and support the learning journey that they require. Our curriculum is successfully adapted, designed or developed to be ambitious and meet the needs of pupils with SEND, developing their knowledge, skills and abilities to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence across all subject areas.

Students with SEND are supported in sport studies as their needs are well understood through high quality assessment and reviewing strategies. We have the highest expectations of all of our students and realise that a positive and supportive environment is where students thrive the most. Our SEND students are catered for as they access a broad and engaging syllabus which is taught using various cognitive and metacognitive strategies. All lessons are progressively planned, incorporating outstanding teaching and learning techniques. Seating plans provide students with the correct support and staff use stickers on books to highlight key learners. Through differentiated BAR tasks linking to clear learning objectives, work is set to the appropriate level and SEND students are able to strive and progress. Learning resources are created and adapted to accommodate all learners ensuring success criteria is achieved during lessons. Questioning is carefully planned and students are specifically targeted to recall and retrieve key information. PE staff work closely with additional support staff to highlight support channels and areas of development to help SEND students achieve their target grade and beyond. Students needing additional support are identified through detailed data analysis and tracking sheets. Staff are able target key students, determine revision topics, and provide regular intervention and superlearning days during exam preparation. Students are monitored and assessed to receive the correct educational support: additional exam time, access to a laptop or help from a reader are just some of the support methods implemented to give our SEND students the best possible chance to fulfil their true potential within sport.

How the sport Curriculum supports our disadvantaged students:

The Secretary of State for Education set out the government’s national plan to support children and young people to reach their full potential, regardless of their backgrounds. With an overarching goal and aim of improving social mobility through education, and delivering better educational and career outcomes more evenly across England.

At Boldon School we have 50% of our students with high levels of deprivation, but strive to raise the attainment and aspirations of all students regardless of social background. We have a robust allocation system of pupil premium funding to obtain the most successful outcomes for our students and to narrow the gaps in attainment across all subject areas.

All teachers within the PE Faculty at Boldon School understand the importance of sport and the positive impact it can have on our more vulnerable students. As practitioners in Sport we are always proactive to build strong bonds and are continually creative to acquire new motivational tools and strategies to engage our disadvantaged students. We recognise content must be challenging, yet achievable in order to increase self-esteem. Having high expectations of all of our students helps promote positive behaviour, which in turn has a positive impact on performance. High quality teaching methods such as dual coding, scaffolding and modelling are all strategies that foster active engagement in our lessons.  Staff continuously reach out to support any additional work that may be required both in school and after school to aid in catching up, plug gaps in knowledge or further progress in what they have already achieved. Both formative and summative forms of assessment help to inform progress of students as well as retrieval and retention activities provide a true picture of our students long term memory. Strong relationships are built and maintained in this subject area. Whole school and faculty CPD allows new strategies to be explored in engaging and promoting the development of metacognition with all of our students.

How the sport Curriculum supports our higher ability students:

HM Chief Inspector stated, If we are going to succeed as an economy and as a society, we have to make more of our most able young people. We need them to become the political, commercial and professional leaders of tomorrow. 

At Boldon school we aim to nurture scholastic excellence through a challenging curriculum where the work given to students is demanding and matches the aims of the curriculum in being coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge. We recognise the need to stretch and challenge all students but especially our MAT and higher ability students to obtain maximum progress.

Higher ability students are supported in sport studies as they are constantly challenged through questioning, discussion and by task design. Our higher able students will have the opportunity to become collaborative learners and this will be established through seating plans in lessons as well as group tasks and different roles during practical. Students in Sport are expected to choose the more demanding tasks that are set e.g. Red tasks within BAR activities, quality mark feedback, the highest mark band criteria in coursework and provide greater depth in examination style questions. The Cambridge Nationals Sport Studies course builds on an ongoing dialogue from the beginning of key stage 4 where students will not only consolidate their learning, but also gain a greater understanding of how to apply their knowledge both practically and theoretically. Through effective monitoring of progress, we are able to identify our more able students and challenge them using our adaptive teaching methods. During exam preparation, high ability students will be challenged to develop their answers to extended writing questions. Mastering this skill will allow them to unlock higher grades. Their work is often used as exemplar materials to share good practice with other students.