Physical Education at St Matthew’s Primary School
St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School believes that Physical Education (PE), experienced in a safe and supportive environment, is essential to ensure children attain optimum physical and emotional development and good health. We intend to deliver high-quality teaching and learning opportunities that inspire all children to succeed in physical education and in developing life skills. We want to teach children skills to keep them safe such as being able to swim. We also want to teach children how to cooperate and collaborate with others as part of an effective team, understanding the fairness of play to embed life-long values. Our curriculum aims to improve the wellbeing and fitness of all children at St Matthew’s, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes.
View our PE Policy on our Policies page.
View our Evidencing the Impact of Primary PE and Sport Premium reports on our PE Sports Premium page.
Topic Overviews
Download: PE – Curriculum Overview 2025-2026 [PDF]
Download: PE – Vocabulary Progression 2025-2026 [Coming soon]
PE Kit
From September 2025, all children are to have a navy blue sports tracksuit for their PE Lessons.
Children are grouped into Houses named after notable figures from Liverpool. Starting in September 2025, we kindly ask that they wear PE tops in their House colour:
• Red – Archer
• Yellow – Braddock
• Green – Wilkinson
• Blue – Chavasse
New Admissions: You will be notified closer to the start of the academic year about your child’s assigned House.
Please note that base layers can be worn provided they are plain Black, Blue or Red, and these should not replace the tracksuit. Leggings of any type are not permitted.
Swimming (KS2 Only)
Boys – Swimming trunks of the appropriate size (not Bermuda shorts)
Girls – One-piece swimming costume of the appropriate size
Swimming caps are required for all girls and boys.
Useful Physical Education Resources
Here are some links to websites that we recommend to help consolidate and extend your child’s learning:
Change4Life offers clear, practical guidance to help parents encourage healthier eating and more active lifestyles at home. It’s useful because it provides simple meal ideas, easy food swaps, activity suggestions, and trusted advice that supports families in building positive long-term habits for children.
For more details, visit: Change4Life
The Body Coach YouTube channel is a free fitness resource from British coach Joe Wicks offering a wide range of home workouts and activity videos that suit children and adults of all abilities. It’s useful for parents and schools because it encourages daily movement, supports physical wellbeing, and makes exercise accessible without equipment, helping families stay active together.
For more details, visit: Jo Wicks Workouts
The Cosmic Kids Yoga YouTube channel offers fun, story-led yoga, mindfulness and relaxation sessions for children that make movement feel like play, helping them build strength, balance, focus and confidence. It’s useful for parents and schools because it turns screen time into active and calming activity, supports physical and mental wellbeing, and provides engaging content that children enjoy doing at home or in class.
For more details, visit: Cosmic Kids Yoga
Health for Kids is a child-friendly NHS-linked resource that helps children learn about everyday health in an engaging way, with clear, age-appropriate info on eating well, staying active, dental care, sleep, hygiene and other healthy habits. It’s useful for parents and schools because it supports positive lifestyle choices, encourages physical wellbeing and offers fun, informative content that makes health topics accessible for young learners.
For more details, visit: Health for Kids
Bright Horizons Family Fitness is a simple, practical guide for families on how to build more movement into everyday life. It’s useful because it gives realistic ideas for staying active together at home or outdoors, helping parents support children’s physical health, reduce sedentary time, and make exercise a normal part of family routines.
For more details, visit: Bright Horizons
Eat Right provides simple, practical ways for families to stay active together all year round. It’s useful because it offers easy indoor and outdoor activity ideas for every season, helping parents keep children moving, reduce screen time, and build healthy habits through fun, everyday exercise.
For more details, visit: Eat Right
