GCSE PE

[everydaysaschoolda]

Please can anyone explain this to me.

My daughter has been assessed on 1500m for GCSE PE practical assessment, she runs for our local club, she has qualified for inter counties and county level. Runs all the local events. She scored 14.5. This score is from the PE dept at her school. My daughter has run since primary school and is really dedicated, she worked so hard to get PBs especially for GCSE PE

Now I know it isn’t about comparing pupils but another girl scored 15. She only took up athletics for GCSE PE, my daughter bet her in every race by 20-30 seconds. This pupil did no running outside of school and hasn’t qualified at any higher level.

This just seems so unfair, should I contact the school to ask them to re-assess or am I being THAT parent?

Happy for someone to explain this to me if I’ve got it all wrong. I wasn’t educated in England and didn’t do GCSEs. Thank you

Well that’s just ridiculous - my year 7 son has relatively short legs for his height (he’s quite tall but long body shorter legs) and he is a county & regional cross country champion an age group up! He has a short stride but a quick cadence and actually that is the way that smaller middle-distance runners tend to run very successfully (the smaller Kenyans and Ethiopians for example). Sounds like you need a meeting with the PE dept to find out if they can reassess your daughter. The trouble with PE teachers is that often they are (by the nature of their jobs) jacks of all trades but master of none. They know lots of sports slightly but not expert in any. I’d ask them for the marking criteria as well. Looking like a runner should get the athlete no points at all, as my son has a tall willowy friend who can’t run for toffee but he ‘looks like a runner’.

Wow @everydaysaschoolda that’s an appalling thing to say.

I would wait to speak to the school PE staff yourself and see what they say. But that is really poor if that’s what they assessed on. I never heard such nonsense.

Hmmm Beatrice Chebet is 5 foot 0.

Eliud Kipchoge is 5 foot 7. Mo Farah is 5 foot 8.

Long distance runners are sodding tiny!

I bet she would be marked down in her practical by PE teachers as well.

I would be very unimpressed with the school @everydaysaschoolda
I don't know anything about athletics but I would be willing to bet a substantial amount on the fact that "looking like a runner" does not feature in the mark scheme of any exam board.
And what on earth were they thinking of even discussing the other girl's marks with your DD? OK, she asked, probably inappropriately. But she's a kid. They do stuff like that. The adult in the situation should know how to deal with that sensitively and bring the conversation back round to her own performance.
I'm normally pretty supportive of schools, probably influenced by the fact that I've got a few teachers in my family, I've always found my own DC's teachers to be hardworking and fair and I think teachers get an unneccesarily hard time from a lot of people. But of course they are not all good and in this case I think you would be well within your rights to complain.

Yes this.
Agree the teacher should have deflected and not discussed the other student.

I too am supportive of teachers (I was one and know lots) but this is not Ok.

I know lots of athletes (I officiate) and I can confirm that some are short, some are taller.

Yes the most successful at HJ are usually tall but I’m talking about Topic and Barshim there. Nothing to stop a smaller athlete trying HJ. And as for running, Bolt is very tall but Jeremiah Azu is 5ft8

So, the head of PE has emailed me back with a bit of an apology and has said there was a spreadsheet error and my dd score was 16.5 not 14.5.

No other explanation at all, no answer to my question about how the marking works

I have emailed to ask for more of an explanation and to query if my daughters height was an issue when marking her, I have quoted ‘the other girl looks more like a runner’ and ask them to explain exactly what this means

Interesting. Maybe the other teacher was flannelling with "looks like a runner" as they didn't realise your DD's score was in fact higher. It’s still rubbish tho.

Do let us know what they reply. And at least your DD's mark is higher.