Physical Education (PE) lessons at Bealings are all about inclusion and all children, no matter their physical aptitude, are encouraged to access sport with confidence and enjoyment. Children usually have PE lessons twice a week, one run by a member of the Bealings staff and the other by Premier Sport, allowing the children to have specialised PE tuition.
As well as the obvious skills progression (detailed below), PE lessons are also about collaboration and communal support. Children work together as a team, supporting and encouraging one another.
For over 20 years now, the older children have taken part in an annual collaborative dance project with other schools in the area. This was previously led by previous Dance Adviser for Suffolk, Michael Platt and culminated in a performance at the New Wolsey Theatre, and in more recent years has been led by local Dance Artist, Sam Moss, with performances (when not restricted by Covid) taking place at Dance East.
Children are taken for swimming lessons at a local pool in the summer term in both Year 3 and Year 4, ensuring all are given the opportunity to learn to swim and stay safe in the water before the age of 10. And this year we are aiming to begin Gymnastics lessons for Year 3 and Year 5 at Pipers Vale Gymnastics Centre in Ipswich.
After school sports clubs include Netball, Football, Handball and Multi-Sports.
Sports Day is a much loved annual event where the children are put into family groups made up of a mixture of children from Reception to Year 6. Out on the school field, each group moves around a carousel of activities, designed and set up by that year’s Guardians (Year 6) and the older children help the younger children around, much like a big brother or sister. Each child scores points for their team in each event, with the winning team getting their hands on the Bealings Sports Day Trophy.
However, for those pupils looking for more serious competition, all children in KS2 have the opportunity to enter competitive local and national tournaments in all areas of sport (Futsal, Football, Netball, Basketball, Table Tennis, Athletics etc). We have a proud history of winning sports teams behind us, and even an U11 Futsal Team that reached the national finals – now famously named as the Orange Legends (click here to see the film of their amazing journey).
The legacy of the Orange Legends lives on at Bealings as children clamber to be able to wear an Orange Legends shirt and enter a sporting competition, just like the older children before them did. So much so, that the netball team insisted their kit be changed from blue to orange so that they could be Orange Legends themselves. Nowadays, all our sports teams wear this colour and aim to emulate the success of teams that came before.
To read about our great sporting triumphs click here – we’re also County Netball Champions by the way!