Objective

The school wanted to achieve improvements in the high quality outcomes of commitment, understanding, confidence, thinking and decision making and enjoyment. It also wanted to improve standards of performance in PESS by developing leadership skills through offering a broad range of curriculum pathways and leadership opportunities.

The starting point

As a designated sports college, the school had spent four years setting up a fully accredited programme. This consists of a range of nine pathways designed to meet the needs of all pupils based upon their ability not age, within a curriculum structured around GCSE, sports leadership awards and BTEC first and entry level courses.

Staff aimed to raise attainment in year 9 by focusing primarily on pupils’ observation and analysis skills, which, given the leadership opportunities available, ought to have been as much as 30% higher. Not all staff were structuring lessons and learning opportunities appropriately to help pupils achieve these higher levels. This goal chimed with the whole school aim to develop the learning phase of lessons in the drive towards excellence (from the base of the previous Ofsted inspection finding that Kirkley was a good school).

The school also felt that it needed to do more to improve assessment for learning for key stage 4 pupils taking GCSE PE (some of whom were fast tracking) and sports leadership awards. It wanted to help these pupils work in groups, observe and compare performances, discuss outcomes, carry out peer and self-assessment, identify ways to improve, and write appropriate targets for their own and others’ improvements in performance and understanding.

In out-of-school-hours learning (OSHL), the school felt that it should offer a broader range of opportunities for key stage 3 and 4 pupils to participate in and lead activities.

Action

The school planned and delivered an effective Sport Education programme in year 9 and ensured that there was provision for pupils in key stage 4 to access level 1 sports leader awards. Staff adapted the key stage 3 self-assessment to meet the demands of GCSE PE assessment criteria and to provide opportunities to visit elements of high quality PE during units in the spring and summer terms, focusing on specific skills in lessons rather than content.

Maintaining the momentum of change, the PE department set up a wide range of OSHL opportunities for pupils to either lead activities for others (contributing to a level 1 award in sports leadership) or to participate themselves. Further up the school, the level 2 award in sports leadership formed part of the post-16 enrichment programme for year 12 pupils. The department also set up a sports clinic (post-GCSE examinations) for a group of 20 year 11 pupils going into year 12, giving them an opportunity to lead a school sport team in their chosen sport during the academic year.

To round off the year, five year 12 pupils wrote a ‘Learning to Lead’ course focusing on how to teach seven-a-side rugby and run related activity sessions. This was in preparation for a mini-Olympics event to be run as part of an international development programme with a school in China. Each of the five young leaders will mentor up to five year 10 and 11 key leaders, providing not just coaching but also lifestyle choices. It is hoped that the younger pupils will then go on to become leaders on the international project.

Key leaders in modern foreign languages, humanities and dance led year 8 classes on Summer Swap Day, when middle school pupils visited the school for a taster day prior to entry in year 9.

Impact

The positive impact of these initiatives was confirmed by results. At key stage 3, 87% of pupils achieved a national curriculum level of 5 or above (an increase of 4%) and 27% achieved level 6. A* to C grades at GCSE increased by 14% to 75% (from 61% in 2006). Up to 85% of pupils scored at least 8 out of 10 in each of the three targeted areas of the GCSE observation and analysis strand, an increase of 25%.

In terms of the high quality outcomes, the most significant change was achieving 100% for confidence – largely attributable to the strategy of using the peer and self-assessment document. The gains in confidence related specifically to taking responsibility for not letting others down; helping others; working without prompting from the teacher; coming up with a range of strategies to improve, vary and adapt what they do by taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of others; and finally, reacting to situations intelligently when performing. Levels of enjoyment were also raised, despite an already high baseline figure.

Interaction using this new model also prompted pupils to volunteer their thoughts about the next phase of the investigation. There was a clear demand for a new structure to enable pupils to demonstrate what they know; an area all feel is underdeveloped. Happily, this coincides with the proposed adoption of the same approach in humanities next year, auguring well for the continued impact of PESS not only on PE but also across the whole school curriculum.