Ring fenced PE money 2015-16
In 2015-16, as with other schools across the country, St Matthew’s Church Of England Primary School received extra ring fenced funding for Physical Education. The amount that the school received was £9,790.

As with the previous academic year the money allowed us to enhance the curriculum in many ways. For example, from January 2016 onwards all year groups in school started the Real PE Scheme of work (this had been previously trialled in Key Stage 1) after a whole school staff training day.

In May the school held a Teamwork day where the guest of honour was 2 time World Champion rower and Olympic Silver medallist Annie Vernon. Annie delivered an assembly to the children in KS2 where she talked about her life and what it takes to be successful, whether it be academically or in the sporting world. The children were thoroughly inspired by Annie’s talk and her messages about teamwork have been echoed and reiterated throughout the school. Annie then went on to work with the children in Year 6 where she introduced them to some teamwork activities that definitely benefitted them on their residential trip to Robinwood.

The link between the school and Chapel Allerton Squash and Tennis Club was maintained with Years 1 and 3 all having the opportunity to receive expert coaching in both tennis and squash. The House Point winners for Autumn 2 were then treated to an exhibition tennis match at the club between 2 professional players. We are hoping to continue and further strengthen this relationship in 2016/17 with further coaching and activities planned.

As with the previous 2 years we once again used the money to continue our long running commitment to the Year 6 Robinwood residential which forms a major part of the PE curriculum in the Summer term (as well as other areas of study such as PHSCE) by paying for the coach travel to and from the venue, thereby reducing the cost for parents and carers.

The money once again gave us the opportunity to enter more competitions that in previous years we have not been able to attend due to travel costs. In 2015/16 the school entered the Leeds North East Sportshall Athletics, various Netball events and also gave 60 children the chance to take part in their first triathlon on 2 separate Brownlee Foundation Days, as well as taking a group of Year 6 children to The Climbing Lab in Kirkstall for a bouldering session. We intend to use the money in this way again in 2016/17 to enter further competitions and give even more children that essential opportunity to compete against their peers. This initiative led to success at the Leeds North East Netball competition where one of the teams reached the semi-finals. The school's Year 6 football team had an amazing year – they were quarter-finalists at the LSFA competition, runners-up in both the Roundhay Football Tournament and the Leeds Football Olympics and were unbeaten as league champions in the Chapel Allerton Champions League trophy. The Year 5 team were also runners-up at the annual Roundhay Football Tournament, with the Year 4 team also reaching the semi-finals. In Cross Country we enjoyed more success with the Year 5 Boys team finishing 3^rd overall in the Leeds North East Cross Country Championships, with the Year 6 boys winning the title for the second year running (the winning team had placings of 1^st, 2^nd, 6^th, 8^th and 13^th). This meant that the team then qualified for the West Yorkshire School Games where they went on to finish 2^nd overall. Two of the children from the team qualified for the National Cross Country Championships at Belvoir Castle in March.

The lunchtime Running Club, which was run by 2 members of Year 5, became even more popular and was opened up to Years 3, 4 and 5 on Thursday lunchtimes.

Also, as part of the “This Girl Can” nationwide campaign the school brought in the Mini-Mermaid Running Club to work with 14 girls from Year 4. The programme lasted for 6 weeks with 2 sessions per week and culminated in a 5K Parkrun at Roundhay Park in July.

Many other things are planned for this coming year, such as the funding and implementation of further clubs to encourage our children to develop a lifelong love of sport and physical activity.

Impact on whole school data

The Olympic Legacy money has also had a positive impact on the academic performance of the children across the school. The data below comes from children who were involved in after school sport from September who were then tracked until July.

In Year 2 100% of children in the sample either maintained or made progress from the previous year in Reading, with 88% in Writing and Maths. In Year 5 79% of children maintained or made progress in Reading, and in Year 6 69% of Summer Born children maintained or made progress in Maths.
 

Participation rates* across school

The Olympic Legacy Funding allowed the school to provide a wide variety of after school and curriculum time opportunities for the children at St Matthew's in 2015-16, including Netball and the aforementioned Lunchtime Running Club. This meant that participation rates* in Key Stage 2 was higher than in previous years.

The participation rates* for each year group were as follows:

Year 1 - 39%

Year 2 - 32%

Year 3 - 82%

Year 4 - 73%

Year 5 - 70%

Year 6 - 86%

We were disappointed with the figures in Key Stage 1 and we intend to address this in 2016-17 by providing more opportunities for the children. However, the figures for Key Stage 2 represent excellent progress from previous years.