Physical Education

At Rhyl, we firmly believe in active and healthy lifestyles playing a huge role to support the learning and development of the whole child. We therefore put a great emphasis on Physical Education, Physical Activity and School Sports. In 2025, we were proud to be awarded the Bronze Youth Sports Games Mark in recognition of our commitment to these values.

Physical Education

Rhyl provides a high-quality PE curriculum that helps all children succeed in many different sports and activities. We build children’s confidence, support their health and wellbeing, and teach values like fairness and respect. We help pupils develop strong physical skills, stay active for longer periods, join in competitive sports, achieve their personal best and enjoy healthy, active lives. All KS1 and KS2 classes receive two timetabled PE lessons per week, each lasting one hour. One lesson is delivered by the class teacher and the other by the school’s permanent PE coach.

We are always striving to provide our children with the best possible physical opportunities. We have a strong partnership with The Place, who deliver an excellent dance programme for our Year 3 pupils. This exciting project offers children the incredible opportunity to perform on stage in front of a sold-out audience at The Place Theatre in King’s Cross. This year, we are also working closely with The Youth Sports Trust, Complete PE, Chance to Shine Cricket, Active Schools, Enrich Education, Kids Love Yoga and Balanceability to support and enrich children’s physical development from Nursery through to Year 6.

Physical Activity

At Rhyl, we help all children enjoy being active and feel confident taking part in physical activities. Children learn how their bodies work, why being active keeps them healthy and how to stay safe. We encourage every child to stay active throughout their lives by helping them find activities they enjoy and want to keep doing.

We believe that Sports Day should not be just a once-a-year celebration of athletics. Throughout the year, we provide six ‘Break a Sweat’ days that give our pupils regular opportunities to challenge themselves, stay active, and experience a wide variety of sports and physical activities.

“Schools should ensure all pupils have access to 30 minutes of physical activity every day.” The Department of Education 2019

We provide two hours of high-quality PE each week and embed active breaks and play throughout the school day. At lunchtimes, we offer a range of physical games led by a Sports Coach, alongside activities supported by our Lunchtime Supervisors and Year 6 Playground Champions. These pupil leaders help organise and lead games for younger children, encouraging active play and positive social interaction during break times. Our daily Breakfast Club also promotes physical activity and is led by our PE coach, providing children with an active start to the day.

Everyday children take part in classroom-based exercise sessions, providing a simple and enjoyable way to stay active for 15 minutes. These activities are carefully designed to improve fitness and stamina, strengthen core muscles, support good posture, and develop key physical fluency skills. We also offer a wide range of extracurricular sports and lunchtime competitions, encourage movement within classroom lessons and promote active travel such as walking or cycling to school.

School Sports

We provide a wide range of opportunities for pupils to engage in sport through free after-school clubs such as football, girls fitness, cricket, tennis and dodgeball. Each year, we enter both boys’ and girls’ football teams into the Camden Football League and regularly take part in a variety of other Camden competitions, including Sport for All events and the Camden Inclusive Sports Programme.

Year 2025-2026 Rhyl Competitions

These opportunities allow children of all abilities to participate, compete, and develop confidence, teamwork, and a love of sport.

Swimming

Previously at Rhyl, Year 4 followed the Camden model of swimming lessons, which consisted of a two-week intensive block of one hour of swimming each day, equating to 10 hours in total. In 2025, 16% of children in Year 6 could swim competently for at least 25 metres, using a range of strokes, and performing safe self-rescue. From 2026, pupils in Years 5 and 6 will also participate in a two-week intensive swimming programme. This targeted intervention is designed to rapidly increase pupils’ swimming competence, water confidence, and self-rescue skills, ensuring more pupils meet the national curriculum expectations by the end of Key Stage 2.