What is GCSE PE? Already amazing or need to improve massively?

[NotDonna]

I’m wondering how gcse PE is assessed. I know there’s theory (not entirely sure if it’s biology, sports psychology, nutrition or what). But how are the sports themselves assessed please? Do they need to be a certain level already or can they be rubbish and show improvement?

Anyone’s DC done a gcse in PE who can shed some light please?

From what I remember hard to get a high grade for the sports assessment unless playing at a high level particularly for mass participation sports like football. My children and other friends of theirs that I know who got the highest assessed grades for their sports were playing at at least county level.

No direct experience, but my understanding is it is about showing their skill level, not about showing improvement. They have to do videos showing their skill or something.
Which if you think about it is fair. No other GCSEs are about showing improvement.

If you want a 'show improvement' award you'll need to look at Duke of Edinburgh scheme I think.

Ds2 did it last year. He had to offer three sports, Inc one team and one individual. He plays footy and does athletics then I think he did table tennis which he did at school.

Mate of his who is a, really good sprinter struggled for a team sport, but ended up doing basketball at school and did well.

You get marks for a certain level - in ds's case literally how far he threw the discus. It's not a massive element tho.

I would say you need to be doing at least one sport out of school. Ds plays for a, local footy team and competes for the county at athletics, to give you an idea (so, decent standard but not amazing ).

We were told that unless they played for a few “A” Teams in school or for their county then B-Tech PE would be more appropriate than GCSE. We were also told it was quite science heavy. Different schools might do different syllabuses though.

Definitely performance not improvement. But I think it's only 40% on performance, 60% on theory now, so still possible to grade high if you can ace the theory. My DS took it 3 years ago when it was 40% theory, 60% performance, and got a good grade despite only really being any good at basketball and a bit rubbish at the other three sports he had to do, because he found the theory easy and scored high there.

Bare in mind that the list of sports can be quite restrictive depending on what exam board - Mine had to do one individual, one team and one more of either but from a relatively small list. A friends child who is getting towards national level in a martial arts field couldn't use that as his individual sport. Also not all sports are being played at the moment so might be tricky to assess levels

The written exams are a mix of human biology, sports science, sports psychology and self assessment

Bear in mind! Bloody autocorrect

DH teaches GCSE PE. AQA Theory is physiology, Biomechanics, physical training (these are paper 1), and then sport psychology, social economic and ethical factors, health and fitness and diet nutrition for paper 2. 78 marks. Both papers 30% of final grade. 1 six mark question, one nine mark question, some multiple choice and some short answer questions.

Practical is 40%. 10% coursework - analysis and evaluation of performance, 10% performance in three different activities - one team, one individual, third is either / or. Marked on impact on the activity (out of 15) and skills (out of 10).

When they have their final moderation their skills is all that's assessed - doesn't take into account progress so they need to be good to get a high mark.

Last year 199/260 got you a 9. Year before was 197.

That’s massively helpful! Huge thanks. The theory sounds great. She’d need to think about her sports as currently only one is a high level.

Meant to say that ds2 got an 8, just a few marks off a 9 I believe, and though he's not a bad footballer, he's not on a club development squad or anything. Yes, he has competed for his county at athletics, but deffo not at table tennis!

He does A level pe now and his sport (just one) is football as athletics has been a non event this summer 😭

My son took PE GCSE this year (AQA I think). The academic side is quite biological but he enjoyed it. I think the practical element was 30%, split 10% for a team sport, individual and either for the third. Plus 10% coursework.

He ended up getting a 9. He picked hockey and cricket for his team sports (he has played county for both) but he was assessed by his school team coaches. From memory, there's subdivision in some sports - I think cricket can be bowling, batting or fielding for example.

He picked skiing as his individual sport. If I had my time again, I'd have picked something easier like two athletics races. The skiing requirements were quite involved for AQA, with timed slaloms and various other things. Trying to get the right video footage at a decent quality overshadowed our ski holiday, plus that of our poor friend as my husband wasn't quick enough to keep up to film on black runs... Not to mention hours of editing after.

If it's AQA, they have a detailed document that goes through the requirements by each sport which is worth a look. Overall, my son was spared the push of final revision so perhaps hard to judge, but really enjoyed this GCSE and it wasn't too taxing.

To add, I don't think you need to be county level to do well in the practical element. If you're a decent A team player, I'm sure that would be fine.

I think the teachers have to be a bit careful with their practical grades as a selection of sports are attended by AQA moderators and if the marks are deemed to be too generous, I believe all students can have their marks downgraded, including in other sports.

I’ve finally found the AQA document thank you and it is very detailed. Interesting what you say about skiing JMG as I was thinking that’d be a good one to do. But there’s other options. She’s fairly sporty (only county level in one sport though) and likes science so I think it could be a good option. Huge thanks to everyone!

Pleasure! I've told my younger son he has to pick tennis as his individual sport if he takes PE to save another stressful ski holiday...

If you decide to do skiing, do feel free to PM me when the time comes to do the videoing as our school queried the requirements (the skiing wording is a bit vague). AQA sent quite a useful email clarifying it, which I can send on to you in case it's helpful.