Sport at Polegate

Sport plays a fundamentally important part in the life of our school and we pride ourselves on our ability to engage and encourage pupils to participate in a wide range of sports and physical activity. We currently hold a GOLD School Games Sports Mark and a PLATINUM KS1 Quality Start Award.

Polegate School boasts a swimming pool, a large field, 2 Multi Use Games Areas(MUGAs), outdoor gym, a climbing wall, fitness trails for both KS1 and KS2, a large indoor hall and dedicated staff!

We have a range of before and after school activity clubs including: hockey, football, badminton, gymnastics, dance, netball, rugby, karate, running and Boxfit. Our links with other local schools as part of Eastbourne Schools PE Association enable us to participate in a comprehensive fixture list of inter-school sports events throughout the year. In addition, we hold our own competitive events annually: a swimming gala, a sports week that includes traditional sports days as well as inter-house competitions such as netball, hockey, stoolball and triathlon. For the last 3 years we have hosted a EYFS Sports Festival attended by many local infant schools and supported by our Year 5 and 6 Sports Leaders. New for this year we also have trained Games Leaders in KS1 to initiate activities at playtimes.

Our overarching school values of RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY and being READY are reflected in expectations of children as they prepare for and participate in PE activities. We foster this even further through our system of awarding house points which are accumulated throughout the year. Polegate School students in teams, and individually, have a respect for one another, their opponents and referees and feel a pride in their performance. In this sense of pride, of course, they are not alone! We have frequent comments about how well our pupils represent their school.

Above all we hope to increase self-confidence, physical fitness, mental well-being, and a love of being active that will continue to adulthood.

Who knows, we may have sports stars of the future!

We have followed the success of our past pupils. Polegate’s swimmers have gone on to compete at all levels, from county meets to national trials. Some of our past (and present!) footballers have very bright futures with professional clubs. We have encouraged our talented runners to join local clubs and those runners have represented their county. We have links with local hockey clubs, Wildcats girls’ football development programme, local rugby and tennis providers.

How are we spending our funding:

• Buying into the local sports network, to increase participation in inter-school competitive sport and establish links with other primary and secondary schools
• Procuring quality assured professional training for all staff to increase confidence and competence in teaching PE and Sport
• Providing opportunities for individual staff CPD
• Purchasing equipment to provide wide range of physical activities at lunchtimes and playtimes
• ‘Boxfit’ training and equipment, plus skipping ropes so that all children from reception to y6 have their own rope to use in school

Further aims:

• Continue to increase participation throughout the school
• Establish team captains/sports leaders in each house