Extra-Curricular PE

The extra-curricular dimension of Physical Education at Dorridge is an important part of the school's ethos. Children are provided with competitive sporting opportunities from Year 1 to Year 6 through partnerships with outside agencies and other local schools. This means that by the time a child leaves in Year 6, he or she will have had lots of opportunities to represent the school within a sporting capacity. 

Our partnership with Arden Academy allows each year group to participate in a competitive sporting festival every academic year. Along with three other local schools, Dorridge Primary receives coaching sessions from Arden and their A-level PE students in preparation for the festival.

Year 1 take part in multisports, Year 2 competes with kick-rounders, Year 3 take part in benchball, Year 4 hockey, Year 5 netball and Year 6 participates in a tag-rugby festival. These festivals involve mixed ability teams with an emphasis on participation and evenly matched competition for all.

Our partnership with ‘Chance to Shine’ is specifically for Year 4 and 5 classes. ‘Chance to Shine’ operates via the Warwickshire Cricket Board and has lots of partnerships with schools across Warwickshire, Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry. Both Year 4 and Year 5 receive four sessions of coaching from a professional coach before every child gets the opportunity to play in a cricket tournament. The winning team from this tournament gets the opportunity to participate in a ‘Winners’ Final’ at Edgbaston Cricket Ground against all the other festival winners across Birmingham. Historically, Dorridge pupils have not only found themselves to be regular attendees at Edgbaston, but have also won on numerous occasions.

Dorridge is also part of South Solihull Sports Partnership. This partnership offers the widest range of sporting opportunities for our children. These opportunities are mostly focused around Years 5 and 6. However, there are gymnastics and dance festivals for Year 1 and 2; tri-golf festivals and personal best festivals for Year 3; also football, tennis and quads kid’s athletics for Year 3 and 4. For Year 5 and 6, a boys’ football league and cup and a girls’ football league and cup are run, which Dorridge helped set up. There are also: dodgeball competitions, cross-country,  basketball, tag-rugby, rounders and Borough Sports.

The selection for these competitions is either based around pupils attending after school clubs, or noteworthy performances in PE lessons. Wherever possible, Dorridge will take A and B or even C teams to tournaments to allow a wider range of children to represent the school. The aim is that in Year 6, every child will have had the opportunity to represent the school at some point.