GCSE PE?

[MayBlossom]

DD is in Yr 9 and will have to select GCSE options in the New Year. She would like to do a practical subject and the most likely contenders are PE, Drama and Food Tech. She is well aware that none of these is a soft option and that PE and Food Tech have a lot of science in them. Her concern with GCSE PE is having to offer 3 sports and not being "good enough" at these sports as we have no idea of the standard expected; she is a decent all-rounder at sport but not county standard in anything, for example. Also, her school are big on netball for the girls which most certainly is not DD's strong point so she does not want to end up having to do more netball in GCSE PE lessons as well as ordinary PE but I suspect a lot of the lessons are going to be theory anyway? The school so far have not issued any guidance about GCSEs but this supposedly will be coming in December or the New Year. Any guidance or experiences of GCSE PE - positive or negative - would therefore be gratefully appreciated.

I could have written this myself. DD wants to take PE but I remember when my eldest was choosing her options she decided not to take PE as she wasn't at a high level in any sports. The teacher said they need to be to get a decent GCSE grade. This is a grammar school though so may be different to the attitude of a comprehensive.

DD enjoys PE and sports at school but I get the impression they have to be really proficient in a sport/sports outside of school to do well. Hoping others will tell me that's not the case.

My son did GCSE PE. He is not particularly talented in any sport, but is very fit (he's at college now getting his personal training qualifications).
He played rugby in and outside if school as his team sport and I think did rowing as one of his other sports. Can't remember third.
You don't have to be a star - just fit. The amount you improve and recording how you achieved it is what they are looking for.
I would say you need to be doing some sort of sport outside of school, but you don't have to be great at it - it's the child's enthusiasm that counts.

Ds2 did GCSE PE (and now does it at A level).

He got 8 (his grades in general were good) - I think no one got 9 in his group but there were a few 8s, so perfectly possible up get a good grade.

He is a massively keen footballer (this is his A level sport) but plays at club level only (local junior team). He also does athletics so he offered that; he has competed for the county at that, which is actually not that hard especially if you pick a les popular discipline (so, not sprints).

His third sport was done in school, honestly I can't recall but I think maybe table tennis. He is very good at badminton too so it may have been that.

She dies need a team sport but a mate of DS's who is a good sprinter, has to do basketball as his team sport and it was fine. They don't expect high standard for all three sports. OTOH I would expect someone doing GCSE PE to do at least one of their sports outside school and to a reasonable standard.

What sports does she do OP and to what level? Any chance of, eg, joining the local athletics club and training up as a discus thrower or a hurdler? By yr 11 she could easily be county standard, if keen and engaged.

Thanks for starting the thread OP I have a year 9 girl going through the same thoughts. She plays hockey to a good standard, club out of school, and loves athletics but hasn’t got a strong third sport. We have talked about the science and she still wants to do it so I think I will encourage her to follow her heart as long as she knows it won’t be walk in the park! She is quite interested in physio and sports marketing as careers (too early really but she likes to chat about it) so probably a good gcse to take with that on mind.

Thank you all for the replies. DD does do sport outside school - or did in normal times. She plays tennis to a reasonable standard and was going to join a club this year and hopefully play in the third adult team until covid hit. She is also a member of a swimming club, although has dropped down from competing to swim fit. She is a good badminton player too, in terms of the standard at school, although does not do this outside school. At primary school and in Yr 7 she used to be a good cross-country runner but has basically given up on that, unfortunately, so would not probably want to offer that as one of her sports. I think she feels intimidated by some of the other Yr 9s who do play their sports at county level saying they are going to do GCSE PE. Interesting comment about needing to be fit, Pipandmum, rather than a star and able to monitor improvement - that is very encouraging and I think she could cope with that.

So I would suggest she joins the tennis club as soon as she can (may well be possible from next week) and also asks about the standard expected in swimming - does she need to be competing?

DS2 for example offered discus and it was about how far he threw (among other things) so he had to be able to show some accredited results (so, from an external competition). If you can't do it in school and have a measure of it there, you need to be able to show achievement outside school IYSWIM.

Then she needs to think about a third sport - she needs a team sport and I am not sure if doubles tennis would qualify? You can check that though. Does she enjoy hockey at school for example?

From when DD chose her options, the feedback we had from school was definitely more along the lines of needing to be pretty good rather than just generally sporty/fit. She would have enjoyed it and probably done fairly well but was very much discouraged. She was district level athletics, played hockey out of school (albeit had taken it up in Y9) and would have offered ballet too.

DS1 is now in Y11 and doing GCSE PE. He is good at sport but not particularly talented at anything. He plays football for a grassroots team. He absolutely loves GCSE PE, in fact it’s his favourite subject and is hoping to take it at A level.

If she's been in a swimming club for a number of years and is good enough at tennis to be considering the adult teams then she's good. As someone said up thread part of it is assessing your own performance and coming up with how you can improve. Then there's a lot of physiology to learn which can level the playing field.

DS did it and enjoyed it. He does one sport at county level but for his third they were scrabbling around to find any sport. It ended up being football which he hasn't done more than lunchtime kick around since age 9.

Thank you to all further posters. GU24, one of my concerns is that there may be discouragement from the school for the non-netball players (or footballers for the boys) to do GCSE PE as these are very much the school's favoured sports. Clary, they only do a term of hockey each year, if that, so DD has hardly played it but definitely preferred it to netball. In my day - totally different school and area - it was hockey all the way and we hardly did any netball. DD mentioned options quite spontaneously this evening and remarked that she is leaning towards PE as her practical subject ("if she is allowed to do it") whatever that may mean - I assume she means the school, not us!