We are delighted to have been awarded the School Games Platinum Mark Award- the highest of sporting accolades that currently only a small number of UK schools hold! This fantastic result stems from many year of hard work, enthusiasm and dedication of our PE leaders, school staff, Sports and Play leaders who all help to organise and deliver competitions and an exciting range of extra-curricular clubs. 

This award recognises our PE and Sports provision as being extremely high quality.  Schools can only be considered for the Platinum Mark Award, if they have achieved the Gold Mark standard for five consecutive years. The Platinum Award demonstrates our commitment to physical activity and competitive school sport, shown through our inclusive and exciting PE curriculum, the wide range of after-school clubs that we offer, and the number of competitions that our children take part in each year.

The School Games Award was suspended in2020-21 due to the Pandemic.

Sports Funding Reports

Four Marks CE Primary School

What is the Sports Funding?  The National Picture

Sports Funding was introduced by the Government in September 2013.  It was designed to give additional money to support schools in developing Physical Education in Schools and build an ‘Olympic Legacy’.

Where does the money come from?

Sports Funding is allocated to schools based on the number of children on roll (Years 1-6) plus an additional flat rate. Initially it was anticipated that schools would receive this funding for two academic years  (13/14 and 14/15), but this has been extended, although there is currently no firm indication of how long the funding will continue. The funding allocation goes across the financial year. (April to April).

The level of the Sports Funding in the financial year 13/14 was £5,948.

In 14/15 the funding allocation for the school was £9,170.

In 15/16 the funding allocation for the school was £8,900.

In 16/17 the funding allocation for the school was £9,255

In 2017 the Government decided to increase the amount of Sports Funding for schools, although this may not continue in the long term. The allocation since 17/18 for the school has been approximately £18,630.

Physical Education at Four Marks CofE Primary School

Four Marks C.E Primary School’s Mission Statement is ‘Preparing for Life’. We feel that Physical Education plays an important role in helping us to fulfil this statement, enabling children to live and active and healthy lifestyle, and live out the 2012 Olympic values. We have worked hard to develop our Physical Education through curriculum time and extra-curricular activities. We want ALL pupils leaving our school school to have the knowledge, skills and motivation necessary to equip them for a healthy, active lifestyle and lifelong participation in physical activity and sport .

How is the Sports Funding used to support Physical Education at Four Marks?

We have used our Sports Funding to:

• Provide children with PE instruction and coaching from experts
• Develop staff expertise in teaching the PE curriculum
• Improve opportunities for children to lead sport and active games.
• Increase participation in a broader range of extra-curricular sporting clubs
• Increase participation in competitive sport
• Increase the engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity – kick-starting healthy active lifestyles

Our PE curriculum

A wide range of PE is delivered to the pupils, which aims to engage and inspire all pupils.

Sports taught are wide and varied, both during the school day, and as extra-curricular clubs. Opportunities include Rounders, netball, Quiddich, judo, dance, cricket and football.

Our Play Leaders, and our Sports Captains plan and teach playground games and sporting activities. This is an engaging way to ensure that pupils access a wide range of sporting activities during lunchtimes and breaktimes.

As well as regular PE lessons, we also provide team competitions both in-house and inter-school.  As a result of the funding, teaching staff have been able to spend more time and resources organising extra-curricular sporting clubs and participating in regular competitions. Pupils enjoy the opportunity to work with different teachers, volunteers and coaches and have the chance to try new sports such as Netball, ‘Strictly’ Dancing, Street Dance, Tennis, Football, Multi-skills, Badminton, Cricket, Rounders, and Athletics.

We monitor participation and check uptake against gender, SEND and free school meals. We enter a wide range of competitions (e.g. Girls  and Boys Football Tournament; Dance Festival; Area Sports; Girls and Boys Cricket, Girls and Boys Netball, Cross Country). We have had significant success in these competitions, and are very proud of the children's team spirit. We were very proud that in 2017, our Girls Cricket Team won the prestigious award for Hampshire Youth Team of the year. We have also been awarded the School Games Gold Award for five consecutive years, culminating in our Platinum Sports Award.

Swimming

Our swimming programme , offered over two consecutive years in Key Stage 2, results in an above average percentage of pupils being able to swim at least 25 metres (the National Curriculum expectation), use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue. ( Typically 80-90% of our Y5 pupils, following our 2 year swimming programme are able to swim 25+ metres, in comparison to 55%* of pupils nationally). We also have a high number of our Y5 pupils who can swim confidently beyond this expectation, with 30-40% of pupils typically able to swim 50+ metres confidently. Pupils in Year 5 and 6 have the opportunity to take part in an annual swimming competition against other local schools.

*findings in the National Swimming Census 2014

Partnership Work

Our school is part of the 7AS (Seven Alresford Schools) Cluster, a group of six primary schools and one secondary Sports Academy, who work together  to plan competitions for the children and share good practice.

Encouraging a healthy lifestyle

We encouraging healthy habits and lifestyles in all of our children. We have our Golden Mile track that encourages children to increase their levels of activity by taking on different 'walking' challenges (e.g. Walking to Lapland) through the year.  Children across the school also take part in our Forest School programme,  enjoying 'free' fresh air and exercise which is beneficial to both physical and mental health.