Diary of a Primary PE Lead
Published on 30/09/2025 in Primary Schools
As the new school term is well and truly underway, we caught up with one primary school PE Lead and asked how it was shaping up.
Monday 22 September
We’re well and truly into the new school year now and the summer holidays and INSET day feel like a distant memory. The best news, especially as I’m the PE Lead, is that the PE cupboard is STILL tidy with everything in its right place – I almost can’t believe it! The day that I organised back in July, when we worked together as a school staff team to tidy it, was definitely well spent. I’m still hopeful that we can keep it this way…ALL year! I think the new PE trolleys I purchased are helping to encourage this new-found tidiness too.
Tuesday 23 September
P.E. lessons have been going well so far with my new class. I’m teaching Year 1 again this year - after several years spent teaching in Key Stage 2. I’ve started with Gymnastics this half term and it’s reminded me of how important it is in the first few lessons to spend time instructing the children on how to safely use the equipment.
We’ve begun with getting the mats out safely and putting them back, in groups of four, with each child taking a corner of the mat, and this is working really well. The perseverance seems to be paying off as they are now little whizzes at it. They know that doing this quickly and quietly means that they get more time on the mats so it’s a good behaviour management tool too – and they seem to genuinely enjoy the independence and responsibility of it, so it has been an opportunity for them to develop extra skills.
Wednesday 24 September
Thankfully, we’ve made sure we completed the report for the PE and Sports Premium within the (extended) deadline of 30th September timeframe; so we should get this year’s funding through soon in October. Phew!
As the PE Lead, I now need to start thinking about what I can use it for this year. New PE and Sport Premium - 50% spend before April, 50% to spend post April.
I think this will be a good place to start Inclusive Sports | Davies Sports as I’d really like to look at introducing some interesting, new after school and lunchtime sports clubs this year, such as Boccia or maybe Kurling. Especially as they’re designed to be inclusive for all ages and abilities. I then need to remember to book some time in with the Headteacher and SBM to discuss my funding needs.
Thursday 25 September
It’s PE day for my class again so we can fulfil our two hours of high-quality Physical Education per week. It’s working so much better now that we’ve decided, as a school, to ask the children to come into school in their PE kits and stay in them all day. The main advantages of this are:
• the chances of uniform going missing because the name is not in each item of clothing (and then the potential for disgruntled parents/carers) is reduced.
• the whole of the lesson can now be spent being active, rather than needing to allow time to get changed (especially for EYFS and KS1).
We are now getting through even more practical elements to the lessons and I’ve been able to use some lesson planning resources I found, like these FREE PE lessons from the Davies Sport section of EuHu. https://www.euhu.co.uk/plans/viewer/e10ad282-cfc8-4e1e-80b5-a16520f94b4b/gymnastics-wow-lessons/plan
Friday 26th September
Another week done! I can’t believe how quickly this half term is whizzing by already. It’s been a great first few weeks getting to know my new class and giving them as many opportunities for outdoor activities as possible, on top of our P.E. lessons in the hall. This has all helped to establish behaviour expectations early on, encouraged them to work collaboratively and started to develop perseverance, patience and resilience skills.
Oh… and the PE cupboard still has everything in 😊
Tips for P.E. at the start of the year:
Try to get all staff on board with keeping the PE cupboard tidy so it’s easier for all of you to ‘grab and go’ when you’re setting up your lessons with very little time available on your lunch break. P.E. trolleys are good for organisation and the ones on wheels can help with transporting the equipment more easily for lessons.
Encourage the children to help with setting out equipment and tidying it away. You could have designated ‘P.E. helpers’ each lesson who have ultimate responsibility for this. You could even give them a fun name like ‘PE Cupboard Protectors – on a mission to keep the P.E. cupboard tidy’ – or let them name their role for even more ownership!
Make sure you have applied for the P.E. and Sport Premium in good time (if you’re eligible) and ensure that you use it in the timeframe allowed – perhaps by setting yourself a reminder alert. i.e. 50% spend before April, 50% to spend post April. Deadline for spend is in July.
If your school doesn’t currently have a P.E. scheme that you follow, find any FREE lesson resources that could help such as here on the EuHu educator platform.
Try and get the children out for as many outdoor activities as possible at the beginning of the Autumn 1 term. This is a great way to do some cross-curricular learning and can help you to get to know your class quickly.
If you’re the P.E. lead for the school, try to establish a good routine early on for keeping all of your information in a central place. It could be helpful to do an overall initial view of where P.E. currently is in your school so you have time to assess the strengths and weaknesses and then the opportunity to strategically plan for further improvement. This should then make it easier to monitor the subject throughout the year.
It also means you’ll be prepared for any potential Ofsted inspection (though it obviously shouldn’t be about this predominantly!).
N.B. from 10th November 2025, Ofsted will adopt their new framework for inspecting schools. They will no longer contain deep dives and should hopefully be less intensive than this previous approach.