Teaching and learning in PE at Leigh Academy Molehill nurtures health and fitness for all with a focus on mental, social and physical well-being. We aim to promote the importance of exercise in staying healthy and develop a knowledge of making healthy lifestyle choices. The school provides a range of activities, both in and outside of the curriculum.
At Molehill, we promote the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Attributes to support the development of life-long learners. We believe that the purpose of PE should be to develop a combination of transferable skills promoting physical, intellectual, emotional and social development; to encourage present and future choices that contribute to long term healthy living; and to understand the cultural significance of physical activities for individuals and communities. Students of all abilities are challenged to improve their movement skills, but they are also supported and encouraged to enjoy physical activity and see it as part of a healthy and active lifestyle with connections to other areas of the curriculum and community.
Each day we take part in The Daily Mile where we make sure we run three laps of our field no matter what our age or what the weatherman says! We are making progress each day with our strength, stamina and well-being.
We offer ‘wake up and shake up’ sessions in our award winning Breakfast Club where the children are given lots of opportunities to start the day actively with yoga, dance, table tennis and team games.
Activities within PE and games lesson include:
- Games skills and team games
- Gymnastics, both floor and apparatus work
- Dance
- Outdoor activities – including outdoor adventurous residential visits for Y6 children.
- Swimming
- Football
- Tennis
- Cricket
- Tag Rugby
There are two types of competition that our children take part in; intra-competition and inter-competition. Intra-competition involves children participating within school competing against other children (their own class, another class or another year group). Inter-competition involves children competing with children from other schools via our School Sports Cluster Partnership that is run with support from Maidstone Local Authority.
We are very lucky to have such a large field and often hold our own competitions between our cluster schools within the Leigh Academies Trust – Leigh Academy Oaks have become great rivals of ours as we often play against them.
Parents sometimes assist school staff with the running of these sporting activities and transporting children to and from events and the school is most grateful for this support.
During these unprecedented times we have still been able to take part in sporting events. We were involved in individual challenges each week through our PE Google Classroom as well as taking part in a county wide virtual Sportshall Athletics Competition.
We offer a range of afterschool clubs including netball, handball, cross-country, football, cricket, tag-rugby, boxing, gymnastics and yoga. These clubs are very popular and often have a waiting list so it is advised you sign up early. The clubs alternate throughout the year, in line with the sporting calendar, so that a variety of sports can be covered.
We have a very busy year ahead of us and look forward to Sportshall Athletics held here at Leigh Academy Molehill, the LAT trust sports day held at Dartford Harriers as well as our own sports days where our house teams (Leeds, Rochester, Bodiam and Dover) compete against one another for the ultimate celebration at the end of the school year.
This year we aim to focus on our mental, social and physical well-being and will be taking part in lots more outdoor adventurous activities than we ever have before!
Watch this space to keep up to date with the sporting calendar at Leigh Academy Molehill.
Student Articles 2023
Friday 9th June 2023- LAT Cluster Football Tournament
Today was what we were waiting for, the football tournament! Everyone was extremely excited and confident, before the game the team were very enthusiastic and everyone believed that we could win the whole contest! The girls football team had gone before us, however they came back just before we were going to have our lunch. They told us that they came 4th, which is a good result especially because it was their first tournament.
Usually, year 5’s and 6’s would have their lunch at half past 12 but this day was different. From 11:58 to 12:59 everyone was getting really hyped up. We went outside and waited for the mini bus. Once the mini bus arrived at Molehill we all boarded the bus and then shortly arrived at Leigh Academy Langley Park. We sorted out our formation and then started to warm up before our first game.
When the first game had started it was mainly just tackling and passing but then the game had 2 minutes left and Stanley got the ball and shot- he scored to give molehill 3 points. Sadly the rest of our games were draws, all were 0-0 but then in our final game and to secure our spot into the finals we needed to win- it was the same as game 1 but then with 30 seconds left, Alfie goes down in the box and the referee gave us a penalty! Stanley stepped up… and scored and we get our spot in the final!
Before the final all of us were having drinks to get our energy back. Then it was time for the final: Molehill vs Langley (with their large group os supporters, we had Miss Hurley-Gale and Miss Wakefield rooting for us). The game was fairly equal but most of the game was shots, tackling, passing and then full-time. Our goal keeper had been playing with a recent broken hand and was recovering but he insisted on playing the full game in the final! Now the time was up and it was still 0-0 so it went to penalties. It was Stanley,Alfie and Richie taking them. Stanley stepped up and sadly had his goal saved and Langley scored. Then Alfie took his place on the penalty spot- he hit the crossbar and the ball went in but the referee said it was ‘not a goal’ and once again Langley scored to win the tournament.
We were really disappointed with the final result as we were so evenly matched as a team. We worked really hard to get to where we were and despite the result we had so much fun and enjoyed the chance to prove ourselves. We demonstrated some key learner profile attributes that day, we were very principled and followed all of the rules and listened to the referee (even if we didn’t necessarily agree), we were open minded, communicators and reflective on our behaviour in our games as well as the other teams we were up against. The day was fantastic and one that we will always remember.
By Nigel and Richie
LAT Sports Day 2023
What an amazing day! We had the opportunity to go to Dartford Harriers home grounds at Central Park Athletics on the 7th July 2023. Last year was sadly cancelled as the weather was unusually high – this year the forecast was good but it was still a very hot day. WE had to drink lots and keep filling our bottles up. We also changed some of the events at the end of the day so that the endurance events were changed for relays involving more children which was really fun.
Our journey to the venue was a buzz of children from Leigh Academy Oaks, Leigh Academy Langley Park and Leigh Academy Tree Tops – we were all very excited and saw lots of people we knew from outside of school. We all had lots of questions about what the day would be like, we were not sure what to expect at such a big event with 15 other schools.
We all had a chance to take part in a flat race and then some of us had obstacle races and relays to do. The other schools were very fast but we did well. Ethan won lots of races but when he came up against a boy from Leigh Academy Paddock Wood, who was very tall, he just couldn’t catch him.
The field events were separated in to boys and girls, we had a go at long jump, a weighted chest push, a vortex throw and a speed bounce. We had to go as far or for as long as we could. It was so hot out at the field events and there was no shade but we did our very best.
At the lunch interval we had a dance for everyone to do, Miss Hurley Gale led the dances and we copied her. Imogen laughed the whole time but we all joined in and enjoyed it. We all took part in a big cheer for Leigh Academy Milestone as they finished their last race and we all ran onto the track and cheered them across the finish line. It brought tears to Mrs Eades and Miss Hurley-Gale’s eyes. We all loved the day and want to do it again when we are at secondary school if we can.
By Ella and Erica
LAT Cricket Festival 2023
15 LAT schools had been invited to Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in Rochester, we shared a coach with the schools from Maidstone and saw some of our friends from the football tournament. We were nervous as we hadn’t played in a cricket tournament before- this was our first. We had been training after school so knew we were good but were not sure what to expect or who we would be up against.
Our first match was with Paddock Wood, who won the LAT sports day so we knew it would be hard. Little did we know, until Miss Hurley-Gakle told us afterwards, that they had four Kent Cricketers on their team so they had lots of previous experience. Sadly, we lost but we learned a lot in that game- two of the boys helped us with some suggestions on how to improve our game. Then we won our next two games so it really did pay off. Our favourite game was against Eastcote as they were a good challenge and pretty equally matched with us. It came down to the the last overs to decide who was going to be the winner, it was really close. Richie and Charlie were in a pair and they managed to hit some 6’s. Stanley was our bowler but when we got there we had to take it in turns so that everyone had a go but it didn’t matter we had so much fun and we improved our skills.
We also had some time to play a few (very big) games of football with he other schools in our free time which was so much fun too!
By Joseph and Stanley.
