Our PE curriculum

At Orion Coopers, we inspire every student to fulfil their potential through a positive and motivating PE experience. Our aim is to spark a lifelong

love of sport and physical activity while building essential qualities such as resilience, confidence, and determination.

Pupils enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum, with opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. From developing physical, technical, and tactical skills to achieving awards and qualifications, every learner is supported to thrive. At Coopers, PE is more than sport—it’s about shaping confident, capable individuals ready for future success. 

Key Stage 3 Curriculum

Our KS3 curriculum is designed to develop a wide range of physical competencies across various sports. Lessons rotate on a three-week cycle, exposing pupils to a diverse range of activities. These sports promote engagement, participation, and help pupils build skills they can carry into the wider world. At Orion Coopers, we emphasise teamwork, cooperation, and personal growth.

Key Stage 4 curriculum

At KS4, we offer a tailored curriculum that enables pupils to focus on their strengths. We invite students to enrol on either the GCSE or BTEC Technical courses and we currently have strong uptake for both. The GCSE course is designed for those with strong practical skills, while the BTEC Tech Award is ideal for methodical learners who thrive on receiving feedback and applying improvements to work.

Those pupils who choose not to take an exam course still receive a double core PE lesson each week. At KS4 we give far more ownership on pupils to choose the sports which best suit their needs. We offer pathways for fitness based activities as well as the more traditional team sports.

Extra-curricular programme 

At Orion Coopers, we provide a wide range of clubs designed for both recreational participation and competition preparation. Our goal is to encourage pupils to extend their learning beyond the classroom, enhancing their knowledge, skills, and understanding of sports. We offer a diverse selection of activities, covering both winter and summer sports.

Whole school intent: inclusive 

In PE we ensure our curriculum is inclusive by:

• Scaffold by personalising the learning based on individual pupil need
• Ensuring that pupils learn about local, national and international events as well as looking at sporting events that are inclusive we identify powerful knowledge and that having a good understanding of it is a prerequisite for understanding other related content. 

 whole school intent: focused 

In PE we make sure our curriculum is focussed by

• By clearly identifying the powerful knowledge in each unit, teachers can ensure that their teaching and assessment is focused on the content that makes the biggest difference. 
• We share this with pupils and their families using Knowledge Organisers. These are valuable tools for revision and retrieval practice.

whole school intent: sequenced 

In PE, we sequence our curriculum using spaced practice. This approach breaks larger areas of knowledge into smaller, more manageable chunks, revisited at intervals over time, to strengthen learning and improve long-term recall.

WHOLE SCHOOL INTENT: COHERENT

In PE we ensure our curriculum is coherent by the use of 4 Big Ideas that underpin all the learning in our subject. Each lesson or sport is linked to the 4 big ideas. Each strand develops a different aspect of the student.