At Distington Community School we work to honour and respect the Sporting Spirit Values.

Do you want to find out more information about the School Games and the School Games Mark? Pease explore the following link:https://www.yourschoolgames.com/

Distington Community School

Sports Zone

News...

Year 1/2 Dodgeball Festival at St Joseph's Catholic High School

Wow! What an achievement!

Recently, a large number of our Year 1 and 2 children took part in a dodgeball festival at St Joseph's Catholic High School. The played a number of group games as well as knockout games against children from 8 other Workington Primary and Infant schools and did very well indeed.

One team ended the event by winning the A final and our second team finished as runners up in the B final. For a small school like ours, this is a great achievement and we are immensely proud of all of the children, who took part in the event.

Well done everyone!

'Equal Access - Girls' Football in Schools' Award

Recently, we received an 'Equal Access - Girl's Football in Schools' award from The Football Association (in partnership with Barclays.) This is an award that only a small number of schools in Cumbria have achieved this year.

This is an award is in recognition of the equal opportunities we provide for all our children at Distington Community School to take part in and play football during their time with us.

As with all sports football is available for all children to access at our school and we provide opportunities for girls to participate and grow alongside boys. We also provide opportunities for our girls to take part in girls only events and support children with finding teams outside school to enable them to grow and develop.

We are extremely proud of this achievement and will continue to promote equal opportunities for both girls and boys across all sports.

#LetGirlsPlay

PE and Sports Premium Funding

PE and Sport Premium is a Government funded initiative that provides substantial primary school sport funding. This funding is jointly provided by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport, and sees money going directly to primary schools to spend on improving the quality of, and participation in, sport and PE for all their children.

The government has committed to the continuation of its funding for Primary PE and School Sport into the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years; meaning that primary schools will be able to put in place longer term plans to improve provision in all year groups.

The allocation for Distington Community School for the academic year 2023-2024 has been £16,990.

All pupils leaving primary school should be physically literate and with the knowledge, skills and motivation necessary to equip them for a healthy, active lifestyle and lifelong participation in physical activity and sport.

The premium must be used to fund additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

It is expected that schools will see an improvement against the following 5 key indicators:

1. The engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity – the Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that all children and young people aged 5 to 18 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be in school.
2. The profile of PE and sport being raised across the school as a tool for whole school improvement.
3. Increased confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport.
4. Broader experience of a range of sport and activities offered to all pupils.
5. Increased participation in competitive sport.

Evidencing the impact of the Primary PE and sport premium document:

What does PE and sport look like at Distington Community School?

At Distington Community School children are taught about the importance of being active. We promote the importance of physical activity and the need to be active for life, highlighting that sports, fitness and healthy eating have many long-lasting benefits.

All of our children receive a minimum of 2 hours of timetabled PE per week (or equivalent) as part of our broader whole school curriculum. Our experienced staff work hard to ensure that all PE lessons are inclusive, engage all children and promote the school spirit values. We aim to motivate all of our children, inspiring a lifelong love of participation in sport and physical activity.

In our EYFS and Key Stage 1 lessons are aimed more at skill development and focus on developing fine and gross motor skills; as well as, building the fundamental skills required to progress throughout Key Stage 2. During Lower Key Stage 2, lessons continue to build on the skills previously developed and look at applying these in small game situations across a variety of different sports. In Upper Key Stage 2, lessons progress further to involve participation in more specific game situations, providing children with the opportunity to collaborate with others as part of a team more effectively, promoting the development the tactical skills and understanding required to succeed and inspire life-long participation and enjoyment. 

Our children have many opportunities throughout the school year to be involved in a number of different 'Intra' and 'Inter School' school competitions. These include: Netball, Dodgeball, Sports Hall Athletics, Hockey, Multi-skills, Kwik Cricket, Kinder Cricket, Swimming (Small School Gala), Tennis and Football.

These are some examples of how we enhance the PE curriculum at Distington Community School:

• Minimum of 2 hours of taught PE per week.
• Working with specialist sports coaches (including CPD.)
• Engagement with KS1/KS2 competition calendar.
• Participation in St Joseph's Community Sports Programme.
• Participation in Panathlon (SEND) events e.g. ten pin bowling.
• Extra-curricular sports activities.
• Orienteering.
• Bike ability.
• Year 2-6 swimming (inc. extra/catch up session.)
• Links with local swimming clubs.
• Sports leaders.
• Sports crew.
• Gifted and talented 'Chance Camp.'
• St Joseph's holiday clubs.
• Promotion of Active travel.
• Daily use of 'Moki' activity trackers.
• Weekly whole school and class 'Active Hero' Competition.
• Wheelchair basketball sessions.
• Celebration of individual achievements both in school and outside school.
• Annual sports day.
• School games day(s.)
• Termly PE cluster meetings.
• Outdoor Activity Residential (alternate years.)

Our enthusiastic and motivated staff work hard to provide all children with many opportunities to engage with and experience in a wide range of different sports. We follow the 'Get Set 4 PE' scheme to support teachers confidences and understanding throughout school. In addition to this, children are encouraged to engage with PE lessons through the teachers use of higher order questioning, used to lead and develop skill progression. 

Workington Competition Calendar

St Joseph's Sport Festival Calendar

School Swimming

At Distington Community School, we place a high level of importance on children been able to swim confidently before the end of Key Stage 2.  All of our Key Stage 2 children receive a 10 hours of swimming during the school year.

In addition to the school swimming sessions outlined above, we currently provide our Year 2 children with 5 hours of swimming lessons during the school year. 

All swimming sessions now take place at the new Leisure Centre in Workington. 

During the current academic year 2023-2024 our swimming lessons will take place during the following weeks:

• Year 4 and 6 - Monday 30th November to Friday 3rd November 2023 
• Year 4 and 6 - Monday 6th November to Friday 10th November 2023
• Year 3 and 5 - Monday 29th January - Friday 2nd February 2024
• Year 2 - Monday 19th February to Friday 23rd February 2024
• Year 3 and 5 - Tuesday 7th May to Friday 10th May 2024