PE A Level

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Has anyone's dc done PE A level and how did they find it? I understand it's quite science-y and covers anatomy, physiology etc which I think dd will find quite interesting.

However she doesn't have GCSE PE and in terms of sport, her main activity is dance.

Her other subjects will probably be sociology and psychology.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

That’s interesting from @MrsAvocet. Yes would be worth checking – would exams in dance count I wonder, or would she have to be competing at dance festivals? DS also did athletics and considered offering that – he would have needed to be throwing discus about 35-40m by the end of the course IIRC for a good grade which seemed eminently achievable. Trouble is with athletics, bc it’s a summer sport you are likely to be assessed on your year 12 level (esp with discus which yoi cannot throw indoors in the winter, unlike a sprinter who can still compete) hence he went with footy. YY you do have to be quite pragmatic about it.

I would be interested in what she is planning to to post A level and does PE/Sport feature. If not I would say do a science instead.

I asked DS for his opinion @bendmeoverbackwards and he said that he thought that as long as your DD gets a good grade for Biology GCSE then he would think it would be perfectly possible to do A level PE without the GCSE. He thinks that there would be some disadvantages to not having done GCSE as there is work that builds upon what they have already done, but that it wouldn't be too difficult to overcome, though it might require a bit of work over the Summer.
One thing he did say though, is that as someone who does sports that aren't taught in his school, he feels that he has had to do more for himself in terms of research as to what's needed and collecting evidence than the pupils who are doing the standard school sports. Not that is necessarily a bad thing in many ways, but he says he does feel that those who were doing sports that the teachers were more familiar with got a bit more support. Of course that's not necessarily the case everywhere, but it's just something to bear in mind.
DS is doing the OCR syllabus and the requirements for each sport are downloadable from their website (Dance is on page 57 and there does look to be quite a lot of options in terms of approved genres etc) and I presume the other boards also have the info available. It would probably be worth showing it to your DD's dance teacher as they may need to help you collect the evidence if school aren't au fait with dance. It will probably be relatively easy to get video evidence for dance as presumably most of it can be done solo, whereas DS has to get matches videoed and then identify himself demonstrating various skills, which is a bit tricky - and well beyond me filming on my phone unfortunately!
One point DS made which hadn't occurred to me, is has your DD done Psychology or Sociology before or would they also be new at A level? He says at his school they probably wouldn't let a pupil do 3 new subjects at A level , as there are always some pupils who want to swap out of "new" subjects when they discover they are not quite what they expect, so they aren't keen on anyone doing more than one subject that is completely new to them.

Two of mine did A level PE and neither did GCSE PE. School didn't offer it and they both got As and A*s so made no difference.

There's more human biology in PE A level than there is in Biology A level.

One of mine did Physiotherapy and one did a Sports degree (and then physiotherapy!).

One did PE, psychology and RS.
One did PE, RS and History.

So both went on to something sport related so A level PE would make sense. Ots hard to give any advice on A levels without knowing what the plan is for post A level.

My DDs friend is a Doctor. She has PE A level. It’s a fourth one though.

Dd wouldn’t consider a science. She’s quite good at science but finds the plant stuff in Biology very dull. I think she’d quite like the human biology aspect.

(dcs friend studying Law at Bristol with PE A level!)

She has no idea what she wants to do afterwards. A levels are tough, my view is that they should choose subjects they enjoy and are good at.

Yes thats fine then if there is no clear plan for after A levels then just do ones she will enjoy.

@MrsAvocet thank you so much to your ds, that’s really helpful. A good point about 3 new subjects.

If she did well at Biology gcse then PE A level won't feel that new.

Psychology was the one that dc regretted taking.

Perhaps better to actually ask the school and see if they'd be happy to take her for A-Level in all the circumstances. They're the only ones who can decide, not a bunch of fandoms in the internet.

*randoms

What circumstances? You don't need PE gcse to do the A level.

If she might want to go to university but doesn't know what she wants to do then it is really worth just having a quick look at some potential courses to make sure she isn't excluding herself from anything she might be interested in with her A level choices. Some courses require a science and some require 2 but will accept Psychology as a second for example. Other courses such as History or Geography might require an A level in that subject. Some courses require at least 2 'traditional' subjects and have a list of subjects which are excluded, so whilst PE might be ok, if she were also doing drama that could be 2 non qualifying subjects (not saying they are on that list but just an example in the importance of checking) You are definitely right that choosing the subjects she is likely to get the highest grade in is the most important factor but the research is worth doing to be sure she has as many options open to her as possible. My son had a list of areas of interest for university which included psychology, law, history and sports science. As a result he took history, psychology and biology because that combination would allow him to apply for all of them.