“The early years of someone’s life form their attitudes in later life and therefore it’s important to highlight the importance of physical activity.”

Sue Thackray
Headteacher

The School

At Driffield CE Infant School, children are at the heart of everything. They hope that all of their pupils will develop a love for learning and problem solving skills as they work together to explore their world.

The school has always been successful and considered with high regard. Nonetheless, they are constantly making sure to look ahead for opportunities to grow and improve. By continuing to make these marginal gains, the children will always receive a warm, caring environment where they can flourish academically.

The Challenges

As a long term client of First Step PE, Driffield Infant School has had the chance to experience a wide range of different services. Initially, the first contact came about when the sports grant was introduced and the school wanted to improve their competency within the PE curriculum. Not all of the staff had necessarily experienced teaching PE and that was one of the key areas were assistance was needed.

There was also the added issue that the school does not have wide open spaces such as a playing field or a sports hall. With that came a struggle to produce a range of activities that the school could implement into their lessons. And the event that forms some of the best childhood memories at school: ‘Sports Day’ would be limited by this issue, too.

“It was important that our teaching staff had the ability to plan and execute high quality PE lessons and incorporate a wide range of activities to ensure the children were engaged.”

Sue Thackray
Headteacher

The Solution

Over the years of working with Driffield Infant School, First Step PE have implemented CPD training, lesson enrichment and generally supported the school where possible to ensure every lesson is covered and prepared for.

The school has benefited from activities that most wouldn’t traditionally associate with PE such as golf, story based PE and multi-skills.

“Schools sports should be about including everyone and this can only be done by offering variety in the curriculum.”

Sue Thackray
Headteacher

The Results

The pupils at the school have thoroughly enjoy PE over the years and this was at the core of the motive behind implementing an external PE programme. No child is left sitting and waiting, disengaged because the resources are not available to accommodate all of the pupils.

Thanks to the prior teacher training received through CPD, the impact of the pandemic was also reduced significantly once the children had returned to school. Teachers were not in the dark about how to successfully run their lessons and where advice was needed, the school could easily communicate with the team at FSPE.

The fact that the staff are always able to get the additional training, observation and feedback means that as a school, Driffield Infant School can always be confident that their staff (old or new), will always have the necessary skills to ensure a healthy, active and most importantly happy school.