At Sir Thomas Abney we provide a high-quality physical education curriculum that is progressive, stimulating and challenging. It inspires all of our children to succeed and excel in a range of sports and other physically demanding activities. We want to provide opportunities for our children to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness as they move towards making their own choices as young adults. In addition we aim to provide opportunities for children to compete in sport and other activities in order to build character and help to embed values such as team work, fairness and respect.
All the activities and sessions at STA are beneficial in developing creative, physical and social skills together with healthy attitude to exercise and fitness. They are delivered through a programme which is differentiated for children's needs and which coincides with their interests.
Children participate in at least 2 hours of PE per week with the class teacher and a PE specialist from Nation Sports who also oversee our after-school club. All sessions are designed to be taught within a sequence of lessons over 5-7 weeks or half termly periods of time to allow for the development, progression and implementation of new learnt skills.
Here at Sir Thomas Abney we are very fortunate in that we have two large halls, extensive playgrounds complete with a running track and a range of climbing equipment, and an impressive Multi Use Games Area (MUGA). All teachers are supported by Dr Barry Costas Senior Lecturer in Physical Education at the University of Hertfordshire and a Primary PE specialist who works with us for half a day per week as a visiting teacher. Barry also helps with planning, modelling lessons, evaluating sessions and giving feedback on taught lessons.
During their time at STA, children are taught by a team of qualified instructors at London Fields Swimming Pool. Hackney has a Code of Practice on the supervision of swimming, which is available for parents to see at school.
Impact of swimming 2021 -2022
| Meeting national curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety | Percentage |
| What percentage of Year 6 pupils could swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres? | 65% |
| What percentage of Year 6 pupils could use a range of strokes effectively (front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke? | 61% |
| What percentage of Year 6 pupils could perform safe self-rescue in different water based situations? | 61% |
Risk assessments are undertaken for all activities off site.
Extra-curricular sport
There is a wide-ranging programme of clubs and teams throughout the year, providing extra-curricular activities. These include football, multi-skills, tennis and zumba. The school’s curriculum leader for PE oversees curriculum content and the huge range of extra-curricular activities available to the children.
Children are required to wear PE kit on their relevant day and jewellery must not been worn.
School PE kit consists of:
Our PE and Sports funding enables us to continue to extend our PE provision to ensure that all children are given an equal opportunity to access PE and sports, through employing an additional PE consultant and sports coaches, entering into sports competitions and providing specific sports and adventurous outdoor activities.
