Relevance of the research topic. Modern society requires the education of independent, proactive, responsible citizens who are able to interact effectively in the performance of social, industrial and economic tasks. The implementation of these tasks requires the development of personal qualities and creative abilities of man, the ability to independently acquire new knowledge and solve problems, to navigate in society. It is these priorities that underlie the reform of the modern secondary school, the main task of which is to prepare a competent person who is able to find the right solutions in specific educational, life and, in the future, professional situations. Therefore, the urgent task of the modern school is the implementation of a competency-based approach to learning, which involves the focus of the educational process on the formation and development of key competencies of the individual. The aim of the study: to reveal the essence of the competence approach in the process of physical education of junior schoolchildren. Research methods: theoretical analysis, generalization and systematization of data of scientific and methodological literature and official documents. Results: competence approach to teaching students in physical education lessons should be considered as a systematic work of the teacher aimed at developing students' subject, general and key competencies, which in their unity allow students to effectively solve problems in preserving, maintaining and restoring human health. Conclusions. The formation of a harmoniously developed child's personality requires the optimization of educational programs aimed at improving the level of motor activity of the child, physical and mental health, physical fitness. A necessary condition for the implementation of such an approach is to take into account all these competencies that can be used in different contexts and combinations in the process of physical education of primary school children.

competence; students; physical education; primary education