PE GCSE options

[PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears]

DS's PE teacher said he'd be fine doing PE for GCSE but recommended he pick up football or rugby out of school to enhance his skills.

He dropped them both at about 10 years old and is reluctant to return. Logistics is difficult too as he's with his dad every other weekend 1.5 hrs away.

I told him he'd have to throw himself into lunch time and after school sports opportunities and try to do something at the weekend to improve his fitness after lockdown!

Does anybody have any experience of doing PE without out of school on top?

I can totally see that it would help, but it seems like a bit like an admission of failure on the school's part tbh.

Thank you.

It's only a recommendation. Extracurricular activities would be great for most subjects where possible, but still the vast majority of kids don't choose to do them.

He will be fine without sport outside of school.

We were told GCSE PE wasn't available unless you played at county level sport. So DS isn't doing it.

My Yr 9 DD has just opted to do GCSE PE. She does a variety of sports inside and outside of school but is not County standard in any of them, nor are most of the other students at her (state) school who have opted for GCSE PE. Her third sport she does not have time to do outside school but the Head of PE advised this does not matter if she is prepared to attend lunchtime and after school practices which she is willing to do. Many of the others are in the same situation.

Hmmmm I don’t think it’s an admission of failure by the school, just useful advice.

My ds2 had to offer three sports, one solo, one team and one either (don’t know if this varies from board to board). He plays football for a local club (not county level) and does athletics where he does compete for his county. Hi third sport was something he did in school (badminton I think). A mate of his only does sprinting out of school so he offered two things from school. Other people offered things like swimming, footy, horse riding. Some of these things cannot be offered in school anyway.

It just makes it easier if you have a sport from outside school because it’s one less thing to have to cover in school.

It's very unusual IME to do PE GCSE without offering at least one sport out of school. After all, if you love your sport, surely you would do some outside school? It’s a bit like doing art GSCE and expecting to get all the work you need done in your lessons.

So to sum up – IME of course – county level sport is not needed, but sport competition outside school is a good idea.

Op has your dad thought about a different sport? Athletics is great and has many strands, or how about a martial art, or swimming if he doesn't like team sports?

haha sorry ds not dad!!

@clary

Op has your dad thought about a different sport? Athletics is great and has many strands, or how about a martial art, or swimming if he doesn't like team sports?

That's a good idea actually as some of those are more likely to be on a weekday evening where he will always be with me. Thanks.

No guidance re home sports or “county level” received from my DDs school. The county level thing has to be made up (not denying you were told that, just that it can’t be enforceable or even ethical). How many kids play football v how many are ‘county level’? Such an exclusionary approach.

@citykat

No guidance re home sports or “county level” received from my DDs school. The county level thing has to be made up (not denying you were told that, just that it can’t be enforceable or even ethical). How many kids play football v how many are ‘county level’? Such an exclusionary approach.

Well quite. County level at footy is not even a thing AFAIK!

It's a lot easier for example to be county level at athletics, say. In our city, if you throw the second best effort at discus on the day at a schools event in the summer, you get to compete for your county (I assume this is "county level" tho in fact it's national level as you compete against people from across England).

Not denigrating the effort involved btw but there are certainly fewer ppl trying to get there than there are trying to do well at footy (bit like playing the oboe as opposed to the flute). So if you commit to training and don't pick sprinting (= flute) but do discus or high jump or pole vault, you can do very well. Hence me suggestng athletics to op - also bc you can legitimately and successfully take it up age 13 (unlike things like gymnastics, as I understand it).

DS is doing GCSe PE and is planning on doing it at A level next year. He plays football out of school but certainly not at a high level.

Just to be aware (I’m sure you are) but a huge amount of the course is actually science/theory based so if he’s not going to enjoy that then I’d steer clear of it.

They are normally asked to do a team sport an individual sport and another one. What does he do (if anything) at the moment?

@ihearttc

DS is doing GCSe PE and is planning on doing it at A level next year. He plays football out of school but certainly not at a high level.

Just to be aware (I’m sure you are) but a huge amount of the course is actually science/theory based so if he’s not going to enjoy that then I’d steer clear of it.

Thank you. He really likes the biology, physio, science side of it.

@Bunnybigears

They are normally asked to do a team sport an individual sport and another one. What does he do (if anything) at the moment?

At school he does (did before restrictions) extra curricular football, rugby and rowing.
When he was at primary school he did out of school football and rugby but isn't going to go back to those. Oh, and swimming up to bronze.

How do the assessments work? Suppose he started swimming independently... or running 5k type thing from home. Would they count?

The rowing is just machine in the gym! Not on a river! He does (did) it three times a week.

Cricket is often in the week at this age.

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears

So does my DS, he should do really well then. An outside school sport is preferable but not essential I don’t think.

How do the assessments work? Suppose he started swimming independently... or running 5k type thing from home. Would they count?

I dont know how the assessment works DS is picking his options soon and this is all the info we have on PE so far but I have seen at my younger sons county swimming galas parents videoing their child to submit as evidence for GCSEs but I guess they also have their officially recorded times so I dont know how they would assess if it isn't an organised sport if you see what I mean.

If he took swimming up again, he would need to do it as part of a club I think, as you need to be assessed on your level. So just swimming for fun (while excellent and a good idea) would not get him anywhere in terms of PE assessments.

The things he does in school would make two team sports, could he do something out of school that would be an individual sport? I don't the the rowing machine will do.

All this depends also how good a grade he wants to get. The higher you aim for, the better you need to be at sport. More marks come from the theory side tho.

Martial arts are a good individual sport, they usually take place on a weekday evening and have an easy to follow grading system so you can demonstrate improvement really easily.

What sports he going to choose to be assessed on. Two team sports and 1 individual or the other way round.

DD has just chosen PE. We are fine for team sports as she plays her main sport at national team level and plays in the school A team at netball. We have more problems with individual sports. She does running for fitness so may choose that but we will take advice from the school. She doesn't get a huge amount of time to join another club though as she trains 3-4 nights a week at her main sport plus games at the weekend(COVID aside) and then monthly regional and national team sessions

I would imagine it is very hard to do all the assessments and filming that is required just doing in school sport. I would probably discourage it as an option in your position as he sounds like he doesn't like the sport side of it enough.

@Hersetta427

What sports he going to choose to be assessed on. Two team sports and 1 individual or the other way round.

DD has just chosen PE. We are fine for team sports as she plays her main sport at national team level and plays in the school A team at netball. We have more problems with individual sports. She does running for fitness so may choose that but we will take advice from the school. She doesn't get a huge amount of time to join another club though as she trains 3-4 nights a week at her main sport plus games at the weekend(COVID aside) and then monthly regional and national team sessions

I would imagine it is very hard to do all the assessments and filming that is required just doing in school sport. I would probably discourage it as an option in your position as he sounds like he doesn't like the sport side of it enough.

I'm not sure yet. He needs to talk to his teacher tomorrow I suppose. The options deadline is Monday 9am.

It feels a bit rushed. He only went back to school on Monday (15th). Obviously he missed half of Y7 and has only had eight weeks of the autumn term of Y8 with isolations etc.

Yes - they're doing options in Y8 rather than Y9.

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears

My DS school did options at the end of Y8 too (although not in the middle of Covid obviously). It was the best thing he could have done, I know it’s not always a popular choice though. He got to concentrate on subjects he really enjoyed and actually wanted to do. He is now Y11 and doing three year GCSE’s has been really helpful at the moment as they had covered a huge chunk of the content already last year when they went into lockdown so although it’s still been very stressful he’s already done a 1 1/2 years of his GCSE courses already by last March.

Our school says they have to be playing sport "competitively" to do GCSE PE.

@*ihearttc
*
I totally agree. I think it's a good thing overall and look forward him to having longer on the subjects that matter, especially as they play catch up after lockdown. On the whole it's been an easy decision to ditch the subjects he's not as keen on.

It's just this out of school sport that's thrown me. All he said was that it would help him play to a higher level.

Ugh - how do you tag? 😂