Physical Education
A KS3 PE curriculum map: what to teach in Years 7, 8 and 9, and which line of the national curriculum each block meets
Three years of half-term blocks across six strands. The strand is what stays fixed; the term a block runs in can move.
Built from the Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 Physical Education schemes of work on this site, which are written against the statutory programme of study for key stage 3 physical education (Department for Education, 2013).
A curriculum map says what is taught and when. This one is for physical education at Key Stage 3: three years, 18 half-term blocks, six strands. It is read straight from the schemes of work, so it says what they say, including the lines of the national curriculum they meet least fully.
The map at a glance
Every block in teaching order, with what students can do at the end of it. The department chooses the activity inside a block from its own facilities and staffing. The strand and what it teaches are what stay fixed.
| Block | What students can do at the end |
|---|---|
| Year 7 1a Invasion Games: Keeping Possession | A small-sided game in which the student can receive, keep and release the ball under light pressure, and can name what they did to create the space. |
| Year 7 1b Gymnastics: Body Management and Control | A short paired sequence containing balance, travel, flight and a controlled finish, performed twice with the same result. |
| Year 7 2a Net and Wall: Creating Space | A singles rally-and-point game in which the student consistently returns to a central base and can name the space they were aiming for. |
| Year 7 2b Fitness and How the Body Responds | A personal record of four fitness measures taken twice, with a written account of what changed and what the student did that caused it. |
| Year 7 3a Striking and Fielding: Roles in the Field | A small-sided game in which the student can bat with a controlled technique and can take a named fielding role and explain what that role is for. |
| Year 7 3b Athletics: Run, Jump, Throw | A personal best recorded in one running, one jumping and one throwing event, with the technical change that produced it named by the student. |
| Year 8 1a Invasion Games: Attacking and Defending as a Unit | A small-sided game in which the student switches between attacking and defending roles at the turnover without being told, and can explain what changed. |
| Year 8 1b Gymnastics and Dance: Composition | A group sequence composed to a brief, using changes of level, direction, timing and formation, performed twice with the same result. |
| Year 8 2a Net and Wall: Outwitting an Opponent | A singles match in which the student can describe a point they constructed — what they did first, what it forced, and how they finished it. |
| Year 8 2b Training and Personal Programmes | A six-week personal training programme, written by the student for a goal they chose, with the principle behind each decision named. |
| Year 8 3a Striking and Fielding: Tactics and Decision-making | A game in which the student sets and adjusts a field for a specific striker and can justify each change from what they have observed. |
| Year 8 3b Athletics: Technique and Personal Best | A personal best in a chosen event, with a written account of the technical change made, the effect measured, and what the student would try next. |
| Year 9 1a Invasion Games: Team Systems and Roles | A game in which the student plays a defined role within a chosen system and can explain what they would change, and why, when the game state changes. |
| Year 9 1b Outdoor and Adventurous Activity: Problem Solving and Trust | A group problem solved under a constraint, with a written account of how the group organised itself and what it would do differently. |
| Year 9 2a Net and Wall: Match Play, Officiating and Analysis | A full match played and officiated, with a written analysis identifying one technical and one tactical priority for the student's own game. |
| Year 9 2b Health, Fitness and Lifelong Participation | A realistic personal plan for staying active after school, built around an activity the student has actually tried and can access, with the barriers named and answered. |
| Year 9 3a Striking and Fielding: Captaincy and Game Management | An innings captained from start to finish, with the decisions recorded and justified against the state of the game. |
| Year 9 3b Athletics and Competition: Personal Best and Pathways | A personal best in a chosen event, an officiated competition run largely by students, and a named route by which this student could continue. |
The six strands across the three years
The code on each block is its strand. Read down a column and the same strand comes back each year, one step further on.
| Strand | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | Invasion Games: Keeping Possession | Invasion Games: Attacking and Defending as a Unit | Invasion Games: Team Systems and Roles |
| 1b | Gymnastics: Body Management and Control | Gymnastics and Dance: Composition | Outdoor and Adventurous Activity: Problem Solving and Trust |
| 2a | Net and Wall: Creating Space | Net and Wall: Outwitting an Opponent | Net and Wall: Match Play, Officiating and Analysis |
| 2b | Fitness and How the Body Responds | Training and Personal Programmes | Health, Fitness and Lifelong Participation |
| 3a | Striking and Fielding: Roles in the Field | Striking and Fielding: Tactics and Decision-making | Striking and Fielding: Captaincy and Game Management |
| 3b | Athletics: Run, Jump, Throw | Athletics: Technique and Personal Best | Athletics and Competition: Personal Best and Pathways |
Invasion games, strand 1a, asks a different question each year:
- Year 7. Why does a team that is better at running lose to a team that is better at passing?
- Year 8. The moment you lose the ball, what should eight people do differently?
- Year 9. Your team is losing with ten minutes left. What actually changes?
The Year 8 scheme says every block names the Year 7 block it assumes. That dependency is the one thing a rotation must not break.
Which line of the national curriculum each year meets
The programme of study for key stage 3 physical education (Department for Education, 2013) has 6 lines for what pupils should be taught in Years 7 to 9. Each scheme prints a coverage table. Side by side, they show where each line is met and where it is not.
| Pupils should be taught to | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| use a range of tactics and strategies to overcome opponents in direct competition through team and individual games | 1a invasion games, possession and support · 2a net and wall, base and placement · 3a striking and fielding, roles and gaps | 1a attacking and defending as a unit · 2a constructing a point · 3a setting and adjusting a field | 1a systems and roles · 2a full match play and analysis · 3a captaincy and game management |
| develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports | 3b athletics — run, jump and throw, each measured twice | 3b athletics — one phase of a chosen event refined and measured | 3b athletics refined against three years of the student's own data |
| perform dances using advanced dance techniques within a range of dance styles and forms | 1b is written as gymnastics; a department with a dance specialist runs the same objectives through dance. Advanced dance technique is not met this year. | 1b composition to a brief, using level, direction, timing and formation. Run as dance where the department has a specialist. | Not met this year. Dance is taught in Years 7 and 8; see the coverage note. |
| take part in outdoor and adventurous activities which present intellectual and physical challenges and be encouraged to work in a team, building on trust and developing skills to solve problems, either individually or as a group | Not met this year. Outdoor and adventurous activity is Year 9 Unit 1b. | Not met this year. Outdoor and adventurous activity is Year 9 Unit 1b. | 1b — problem solving, trust and navigation, held until Year 9 deliberately |
| analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best | 2b four personal measures taken twice · 3b personal bests with the technical change named | 3b is built entirely on it — one variable changed, measured across attempts, against the Year 7 baseline · 2b reviews a programme against its own goal | 2a analysis against a recorded tally · 3b three years of personal bests read as evidence about a method |
| take part in competitive sports and activities outside school through community links or sports clubs | Every block ends with named local provision for that activity, and the fitness block sets one activity a week outside lessons. | Every block ends with named local provision, and 2b sets two sessions a week outside lessons. | 2b is built on it — every student leaves with a named club, a time, a cost and a first step. Also in 1a, 2a, 3a and 3b. |
What this map does not cover fully
Two lines are met unevenly, and the schemes say so rather than leave a department to find out.
- Advanced dance. Years 7 and 8 build body control and composition, which is most of what a dance assessment rewards. Year 9 has no dance block. A department with a dance specialist should run block 1b in Years 7 and 8 as dance, and can consider replacing the Year 9 1b with a third dance block.
- Outdoor and adventurous activity. It is held until Year 9 deliberately, so the problem-solving and trust work is genuine rather than a game. A department can deliver it as an off-timetable day or a residential.
The Year 7 scheme treats swimming separately. It is statutory at key stage 2, and at key stage 3 it applies only to students who did not meet it. Where a school has a pool and students who need it, the scheme says that provision replaces one block rather than being added to six.
What can move, and what cannot
The order down the page is one workable rotation, not an instruction. No Year 7 block assumes another Year 7 block has been taught, so a department can run them in any order its hall, gym and field allow. The strand across years is the part that must not be reordered. Why a PE scheme works like this, and a lesson-by-lesson plan cannot, is the subject of how to write a KS3 PE scheme of work.
After Year 9
GCSE PE picks up from here. The Year 10 and Year 11 schemes are built on the Department for Education subject content and Ofqual's conditions, which every GCSE PE specification in England shares: Year 10 and Year 11. For how each exam board marks the course, see GCSE PE: how each board marks it.
The schemes behind this map
- Year 7 Physical Education Scheme of Work
- Year 8 Physical Education Scheme of Work
- Year 9 Physical Education Scheme of Work
- PE schemes of work: Key Stage 3 and GCSE
- Each year on one page: Year 7 PE · Year 8 PE · Year 9 PE, with what every block asks students to do
- KS3 PE knowledge organisers, printable A4 notes, one per unit