Here at JESS Jumeirah we love being physically active! Our well balanced PE curriculum provides our pupils with the opportunity to experience a variety of enjoyable physical activities and sports that help to improve their strength, co-ordination, balance and develop habits to ensure lifelong health and fitness.

Physical Education lessons are inclusive and are differentiated to personalise the learning experience for every child. Knowledge of health and wellbeing is imbedded within the teaching and learning in the department and pupils develop their understanding of what it means to be healthy and how to live a safe, healthy lifestyle. The key sports covered in lessons are athletics, swimming, invasion games, gymnastics, dance, outdoor pursuits and striking and fielding games.

Physical Development is an essential component of the Foundation Stage curriculum, too. The emphasis in the Foundation Years is on fun and enjoyment allowing the children the time and support to develop their physical abilities and to become lifelong lovers of physical activities. Increased competence in gross-motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and core stability, have an impact on learning in all other areas of the Early Years curriculum. As such, children are encouraged and guided to experience a wide range of activities; these include activities with small apparatus to improve manipulation and hand eye co-ordination, lots of opportunities to play with apparatus that encourages core stability such as pot stilts, bouncers, wobble boards and balancing equipment. In addition they enjoy all kinds of games, sports days and climbing, clambering and swinging on the big apparatus. In cooler weather Foundation children now have access to a tree shaded ‘adventure area’. The Foundation Stage children have their own purpose built pool as part of the school’s pool complex. Foundation 1 children enjoy a water confidence programme in the summer term; riding on noodle ‘sea horses’, playing with ‘frog friend’ floats and swimming through ‘mermaid cave’ hoops; both children and teachers look forward to these fun sessions!

Foundation 2 children use the trainer pool but also have access to the full 25m pool to enhance their experience and further extend their swimming skills.

Using the PE departments Learning 2 Learn skills we are able to help pupils to understand and reflect upon how they learn. Each term has a focus including understanding skill acquisition, the application of tactics and techniques and being able to evaluate and improve performance. These are key focus areas within the JESS PE curriculum that have been adapted from the UK national curriculum to meet the needs of our pupils.

Meet The Team
(Left to right) Mr Ben Parnell (Head of PE), Mrs Annie Stapley, Mr Niall Statham