PE A Level

Thank you, this is really helpful.

Dd does ballet, tap, jazz, modern and hip hop at a local dance school. She's at a high level in most (Grade 6 or intermediate). The dance school don't do the festival circuit but they do an annual show which is a very high standard. I will look into the requirements a bit more.

I'm just worried school might say no as she hasn't done the GCSE.

My DS is doing PE. It's accepted as an alternative to biology for quite a few courses eg physiotherapy so the science content is presumably viewed as sufficiently robust for that. There's quite a bit of psychology too, and DS has recently been doing something about the development of sport in this country, so covering sociological aspects too. It's pretty interesting and as far as I can tell is viewed favourably for quite a few types of university course, not just Sports Science. DS was torn between biology and PE but went for PE as he thinks he'll get a better grade. In his words "I'm good at sport and plants are boring".
I would look carefully at what is expected for the practical component regarding dance though. I know it's on the approved list, but check precisely what is needed. Does your DD compete? Certainly all the more traditional sports need to be performed competetively eg you can't use cycling if you cycle for leisure, even if you ride up the Alps - you have to race, and for A level it has to be specific types of racing. You only need to demonstrate one sport for A level (3 for GCSE, though they reduced it to 2 during Covid) but the expected standard is quite a lot higher, and more focused on attainment than demonstrating improvement, which seemed to be a big thing at GCSE. You don't need to be a national level athlete to pass of course, but to get good marks in the practical section you do need to be pretty good. My DS looked at the specifications for his 2 sports and picked the one he actually does a bit less off as he thinks he will score better. The times needed to get high marks in his favourite sport were faster than he things he'll achieve in the coming season so he made a pragmatic choice. I'm still probably going to have to shell out for some 1:1 coaching and professional videoing to be able to adequately evidence the skills he will be scored on, as it's not a sport they play in school. So I would look carefully at what is on the specification for dance and check that your DD will be able to provide the necessary evidence - there may be restrictions on precisely what types of dance are included etc.

Ah there you go all good. Yes no need to do history GCSE to do the A level, as it’s modular, not linear, unlike, say, French. Just if someone was interested they usually would have picked it. But dance not sport seems like a good reason. Pe A level better than dance A level imo. Would she consider biology instead of psych as they link better?

I was interested so I checked, Dance is on the list of permitted activities: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/860801/GCE_PE_activity_list_revised_Nov_2019.pdf

Interestingly I noticed that at DD’s school there are some A level subjects that don’t require that subject at GCSE eg History and Geography. They just require a humanity subject. Which made me think her not having GCSE PE would be a problem.

Thank you @clary that’s really helpful.

She didn’t consider it for GCSE as she’s not naturally sporty and now in Year 11 she’s getting giving serious thought to A level choices. Her school offers it and she seems to think that dance could be her ‘sport’. Unfortunately her school doesn’t offer dance A level but another local school does so that’s also an option. Although she’d prefer to stay at her current school.

Meant to ask, why didn’t she take GCSE PE? I would expect it as in, would suppose anyone interested would have done it for GCSE (ds did) but no idea if it’s essential.

My ds took PE A level. It’s not offered in masses of places but his school always has a good contingent taking PE GCSE so the A level is popular. I think maybe 10 or do took it.

Ds is pretty smart and he was certainly the brightest student in the group (certainly not true for him in his other A levels lol) so I feel like it’s chosen by less academic students. He got an A but I think if he had taken the exam he would have got A star (was last year so TAGs) so a high grade is possible. That sounds like a massive boast but not intended to be.

yy v sciency - he also took biology and joked he just did double biology.

Sport wise you only offer one, he did footy and did v well. Others offer athletics or rugby etc. You need to do it out of school but ds just played for a local Sunday team so nothing amazing. His mate that did athletics competed for his county. You would have to find out if dance is acceptable, no one did it in ds’s class. There were girls, they did footy or riding I think. It’s about analysis and knowledge as much as how well you play iyswim. Hth sorry it’s so long!