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.

DS’s school strongly recommend out if school sport for students doing GCSE PE- ideally one at county or above (yes, county football exists as this was used by another student I know as one of his sports).

Swimming (DS’s main sport) requires a knowledge of 4 correct strokes, evidence of competition and training. It’s easy to prove progress and achievements as swimming results are all maintained online by British Swimming. But they need to be registered with a club and British Swimming to do this. It’s not a case of going for a quick splash once a week.

actually yes, thinking about it ds2 played footy for a county team at one point. It's less of a thing than kids playing for junior teams in pro clubs tho I think. Not that he does that either - and by the way football is his A levels.

Agree re swimming - he would need to be in a club, tricky at 13 if not swim for a while. Martial arts is a good shout as progress is clear. Athletics offers summer comps where you get ratified results. Or something off the wall like fencing?

haha football is his A levels! he wishes! I meant it is his sport for Alevel PE lol.

Is wrestling a thing here? My nephew did it in the US. He's a big boy so wrestling would suit him!

Thank you all so much. You've been really helpful!

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears

Is wrestling a thing here? My nephew did it in the US. He's a big boy so wrestling would suit him!

Thank you all so much. You've been really helpful!

Wrestling is not on the approved list of sports for GCSE PE.

Ah ok. Thank you!

You certainly do not need to be County level at sport. They are interested in progress, though of course the subject is self selecting- a child should not do it if they are not interested in sport! But all the kids that took PE GCSE at our school did sport outside of school (my son did rugby and rowing, the latter he only started in Y10) and I believe that they had to be competitive.

Ds and DD both did PE - slightly different as we are outside the UK so iGCSE. Download the syllabus and look at all the sports allowed and criteria for reaching each point level. Mine had to do 4 sports but understand from friends it's 3 in England. The requirements change from year to year. DS's year all swam at school in Y10 and most got the highest mark, 2 years later the times had changed so much that only a few of those would have got top score 2 years later. DS's year were hastily filming in Feb of Y11 whilst trying to cram everything else in for GCSE's. It was quite stressful so I got very familiar with the syllabus before DD started and we talked about and planned her sports together rather than leaving it up to discussions at school.

My son did PE GCSE last year. He needed one individual and one team sport then another one from either category. I'd recommend downloading the syllabus as there is very specific and helpful guidance for each sport. He was county level at hockey and cricket but ended up being assessed in rugby and cricket. Even then, it subdivides from memory - so could be bowling, batting or fielding for cricket, or kicking and passing for rugby (though double check that..)

School carried out the team sports assessments - he was given a grade by his coach based on his performance over the season. Covid rather put paid to moderation but school is typically asked to put on a competitive match for at least one sport that the moderator can watch. Apparently, if they were deemed to have marked candidates too generously in this match, all GCSE candidates would be marked downwards (across all the sports).

My son picked skiing for his individual sport - the requirements were very specific so, in all honesty, it slightly overshadowed our ski holiday trying to record all the bits for the video (it's one of the few individual sports done by video only). Kids that didn't really have an individual sport were encouraged by school to do athletics, again a race was put on for them.

I definitely wouldn't say you need to play sport out of school or be county level, provided the standard of sport at your school is good. I think each sport contributed 10% of his final mark (and coursework another 10%), therefore getting a 6 or 8 (or whatever) doesn't have a huge bearing relative to the exams in any case.

For what it's worth, my son really enjoyed the course and there was a fair bit of overlap with biology.

We were also told that our son needed to do 3 sports with extra activities out of school for all three. I think it really depends on whether you/he cares or needs a good grade in PE. If he can't do out of school sports I suspect it will affect his grade but if that doesn't matter than why not.
My son goes to a grammar school and I suspect his GCSE PE score will be the lower than his academic grades but its also the subject he enjoys most at school so makes perfect sense to me he takes it.

sorry running 5k at home does not count he would need to run competitively but this could be through school

@ittakes2

sorry running 5k at home does not count he would need to run competitively but this could be through school

The good thing about running is that you could do the time-consuming training part at home, then the race itself at school.

Having checked with my son, he said that the B team players who didn't play club/county sport were typically given around 18/20 out of 25 for their sports, which translates to a 7/8 out of the maximum 10% for each sport. (Proviso that our school sport is a fairly good standard).

Being completely honest, it was his easiest GCSE but one he really enjoyed. It's worth picking your sports carefully but you don't have to be Owen Farrell to get an 8 or 9.