Gymnastics

The gymnastics provision at St Michael’s Prep School aims to develop our pupils’ physical fitness, coordination, creativity and teamwork skills.

Pupils are provided with a well-rounded and engaging gymnastics programme that promotes individual growth and collaborative learning.

We provide pupils with opportunities to develop their physical skills and coordination through a variety of movement routines, acrobatic skills and team-based activities. Our gymnastics curriculum focuses on both individual and small-team activities, allowing the children to design and perform gymnastic routines whilst improving their peer assessment, balancing and basic acro skills.

Using video playback, our peer assessment approach promotes self-reflection and self-efficacy in our pupils which develops a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of gymnastics. By providing constructive feedback and suggestions, they enhance their communication skills and gain a greater appreciation for teamwork and collaboration.

The children are taught balancing techniques such as counter-balance, counter- tension, matching and mirroring which helps to improve their core strength and stability. These activities range from simple tasks like balancing on a beam or walking on a line, to more complex manoeuvres that challenge their coordination and concentration.

Movement routines allow our pupils to express their creativity. Through choreographed sequences of jumps, turns, rolls and balances, they create fluid and captivating routines which showcase their agility, rhythm and spatial awareness.

Acro skills are introduced throughout the St Michael’s journey. These include the teddy bear roll, cartwheel, forward roll, bridge, headstand, shoulder stand and handstand. By practicing these fundamental acrobatic techniques, pupils develop body control, strength and confidence which serve as building blocks for more advanced gymnastics movements and routines.

Our Years 7 and 8 curriculum introduces vaulting skills using equipment such as a box, springboard and trampette. Pupils learn basic vaulting techniques including running approaches, jumps and landing techniques. These activities help the children improve their speed, power and spatial awareness whilst developing skills required for more advanced vaulting manoeuvres such as somersaults and front handsprings.

At St Michael’s Prep we believe gymnastics is the best activity for improving physical attributes (strength; flexibility; power) and developing fundamental motor patterns (agility; balance; coordination) which are transferable to all sports. To support our gymnastics curriculum we also run a co-curricular activity which is led by a GB gymnast from Lightning Gymnastics Sevenoaks.