Braehead Primary School: Introduction

Introduction and aims

Braehead Primary School in Stirling has a roll of 400, comprising 14 classes (two at each stage) and two nursery classes. The school PE facilities consist of a gym hall which is used also for assemblies and other activities associated with school life, and generous outdoor space with a blaes area the size of a football pitch, a similar sized grass area and separate tarmac playground space for P1-P3, P4-P5, and P6-P7.  The school has a well resourced PE store.

There is support from a visiting teacher of PE one day per week plus one afternoon on alternate Fridays. For the most part the class teachers and the specialist work together, the specialist modelling the lesson and the class teachers reinforcing lessons before the next specialist visit. The headteacher and her management team are committed to fulfilling the recommendations of the Physical Education Review Group, with PE highlighted in the School Development Plan (2006-07).  As a consequence there were two sessions of whole staff development in learning and teaching physical education in session 2006-07, probationers had additional staff development and for the past two sessions classes have had 90 minutes of PE every week. In practical terms this has made considerable demands on the school’s only indoor facility - in effect blocking the gym for four days per week. 

The aim of this project was to give P4-P7 (eight classes) additional PE, led by class teachers and for the most part taken outdoors, with the objective of meeting the additional time (30 minutes) of the Government’s recommendations. The project was piloted over eight consecutive weeks from the end of August to the end of October.