Non sporty child wanting to take GCSE PE

[doramaar]

DD is y8 and choosing her GCSE options. She wants to take PE. This isn't because she has any interest in pursuing a career in fitness or health, but because she doesn't want to do any of the other remaining options. There are several other ways she could feasibly go (separate sciences, a second humanity, computing, drama, food tech) but she doesn't want to.

I obviously want her to choose subjects that she thinks she's going to enjoy, but also would like her to choose subjects that she has a good chance of getting a high mark in. She's academic so I'm not concerned about the theory element of PE.

But she's really not that sporty. She has joined an after school cricket club this year but doesn't play for the school team or an outside club yet. One of the team sports they would be doing is netball - she's never played it and has no idea whether she'd be any good at it. She doesn't do any individual activity at the moment. In all honesty my perception is that she is pretty average at best in PE. At the end of year 7 her target grade was a 2 (based on GCSE grades) and she got a 2C, so verging on a 1. For context she got 4s in English and Maths so was well above in those.

I think it would be a poor choice for her - the school itself recommends that they should be playing at least one sport outside school at a significant level and I've read things about kids needing to be playing at county level etc to do well.

Does anybody have any experience of a non sporty child taking it? If she were to ace the theory but do badly in the actual sports, could she still come out with a reasonable grade overall (ie a 6?)

TBH I think it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

It will be full of sporty kids who like sport.

I think doing anything at GCSE that you actively don't like/aren't interested in will be a miserable slog.

Does she need to "do well" to get something out of it?

If she's academic, her other grades will be fine - and a low grade in GCSE PE if she wants to pursue more academic subjects to A-level or degree is hardly going to make a difference.

Why not let her try something different? She might hate it - OK, lesson learned. She might just find her groove. Let her find out.

Also, it's not a prison sentence - if half a term in she finds it's making her miserable, it can't be beyond the school's powers to get her onto a different course like something creative.

My daughter is taking PE GCSES. My understanding is that if you do an outside school sport (especially one that is quite obscure) you just have to film your kid doing it and provide regular videos to the school. These videos can be retaken as many times as you want to ensure they're really good.

My daughter is taking horse riding, rock climbing and netball.

She's exceptional at horse riding (jumps at national level for her age group) but just plays netball at school and does rock climbing once per week at a centre near us.

That's the thing though - I do think she would be potentially limiting her A Level options taking PE. She'd be better off taking both history and geography instead for example (they only have to choose one) so that they're both open to her later on

The practical element has a higher weighting than the theory so taking GCSE PE is a really bad idea for a non-sporty academic child who would almost certainly do better picking another option. If she wants something more practical, food would be better than PE. If she’s good at English she really should consider doing two humanities. The match together well.

I think the theory is 60% but yes I've tried to convince her that food tech would be better! She's very stubborn though

Thanks @XelaM. If DD was doing something at national level I'd have no qualms whatsoever! But we really are talking the other end of the spectrum here. She was so uncoordinated and accident prone at primary that dyspraxia was mentioned...she's full of enthusiasm for PE but I just don't think it's where her strengths lie.

If she doesn't want to do something at GCSE, it's unlikely to be singing that strongly to her that she's going to want to do it for A level

I'd let her do it. Because she doesn't want to do anything else, and if it's going to fuck up, it's actually quite a harmless fuck up. And you never know, she might just rise to the challenge and find good skills in a sport.

Remember that the practicals are marked (in part) on self-evaluation as well as level of performance. And what they learn about nutrition, sports psychology, motivation and planning for results/coaching are useful for life

I do get what you're saying and agree that the theory side of it sounds great.

But she's only 12 and she's been so changeable over what she wants to do. A few months ago she declared that she loved food tech and wanted to be a chef. Now she apparently hates food tech. At one point she wanted to do drama but now she hates drama. She has a vague idea of going into law and we thought history would be a good choice, but now she's erring towards geography.

All of this I think is really understandable and really don't like that they're having to choose in y8!

I did GCSE PE because the boy I fancied was doing it 😂 it was fine. I got a C.

My DS is doing PE, he loves sports but the things he enjoys most - fitness, cycling, etc are not among the allowed sports (yes, he could race in cycling but he prefers doing jumps with his friends, riding trails, etc). He does an individual sport outside of school to a reasonable level (nowhere near a mumsnet reasonable level) but I am relying on school to pick up the other sports he needs.
I don't know yet if this is going to be a disaster (he's Y10) but he really enjoys the theory and enjoys playing badminton or going to the gym in lessons as well.
I see it partly as a science, he won't be able to do it for A Level as I think you do need a high level sport for that, and also keeps his options open for careers in nutrition, fitness, part time job at the leisure centre or just for keeping himself fit.
At his school you can do history for A level without the GCSE but not geography, you could check likely schools/colleges and see if she is limiting herself.

Gsce PE was compulsory at dd's school. She hated PE but got a B. The theory work got her through.

At dds school, sport is the only subject where you have to be excelling at it to take it. They wouldn't allow your dd to take it. It's 3 sports for dds syllabus, all which you have to be doing outside of school and would have been for years plus all need filming At competitions etc.
as an aside - are you in the Uk? I can't see how your dd has got to year 8 without ever playing netball.

Is this a selective school? And is the sport more than 40% of the syllabus?
The super sporty kids at my DS's school struggled with the theory and while they came out ok because of strong sport, other kids, with less strong sport and stronger academics came out better.
I guess it's finding a balance.

It's a state grammar @LarkspurLane .

That makes sense and I can totally understand why they want the sport to be strong.
Mine is at a mixed comp so they can be less fussy about the sport if they feel the child is academically able.

And - 30%. 10% each sport.

It's been great in way - as it has meant dd has had to carry on with 3 sports outside of school and will do up till shes 16, which I'm really pleased about. But on the other hand it might be nice to have dropped one or so by now since she really just wants to go to the gym now.

Hi yes in England. I think they might have done netball a few times at primary but not at secondary yet according to DD

Firstly – the weighting of practical over theory – I guess it varies, but I just checked AQA and the practical element counts for 40% so you are right OP, the theory as a higher weighting. That said, 40% is still significant for an element that you don’t actually enjoy – especially when pretty much everyone else in the class will enjoy that element.

IME PE is chosen for GCSE by two types of student – those who love PE, whether that’s one specific sport or a range, and those who really don’t like any subject at all but think PE will be reasonably easy. It doesn’t sound to me as tho your DD is either of those @doramaar .

Can you probe a bit further why PE? I hear her on not liking anything else enough, but there must be something that is driving her towards PE rather than history (or whatever).

I would say that taking history when you really don’t enjoy it is not helping you with A level options really – you are hardly going to want to pursue it post 16 if you don’t enjoy it at age 12.

This whole debate btw is a good argument for not choosing options in yr 8.

How popular is PE GCSE at your DD’s school? I ask bc it was v popular in DS2’s year – two groups – so someone who was less keen on sport might find others and blend in a bit more. But a local school to us has typically a tiny number taking it, like less than a dozen, so they will probs be the real keenies.

DS (obvs!) took it and for A level too. He is super sporty and has played so many sports in his time. When he did GCSE he offered footy (played for a local team for many years) and athletics (competed for his county) and then a third I cannot recall – but he did that one in school. His mate that is a great sprinter did athletics (similar standard to DS) and then two things through school, one being a team sport which was fine. A lot is talked about “must be xxx standard” but the key thing I think is that the DC does something outside school as it’s tough to cover everything in school tbh. Also it will improve their analytical ability if they do the sport 2-3 times a week.

Interestingly, tho in theory he was at a higher level in athletics, DS offered football for A level – he had played for many years (like about 12) but never higher than a local club level really.

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in. Whether it's possible to do reasonably well on the theory alone given that it accounts for 60%.

As an aside DD's school is also a state grammar which has top results but they seemingly let anybody do PE!

Sorry I just read your message @doramaar saying she is really enthusiastic about PE - well sounds like it might be a good shout after all? As I and others say, analysis and improvement are important alongside ability

Would you not be asking school teachers to speak to her and advise? She's more likely to listen to them than parent in my experience!

DD is at a state comp and is doing PE GCSE - she loves it. She's doing the AQA syllabus too. She had to choose 3 sports - one team sport, one individual sport and the other could be either. DD chose netball (she's county level), swimming (she used to swim for a club but doesn't any more - but was able to demonstrate skills such as tumble turns and butterfly stroke that most non-club swimmers would struggle with) and skiing (we're a skiing family and she's been loads of times since she was little). Maybe talk to your DD about which three sports she would choose and how she thinks she can demonstrate the required skill level?

I think it would be hard to do well on the theory alone. DD says that in their mock paper, a score of 49% was only a GCSE grade 3.

@clary I just think she thinks it will be an easy/fun option tbh. Despite being academic and at a selective school, she likes to put in the minimum effort (hoping this changes!)

Looking at last year's results, 29 took it out of a year of 120, so it seems to be reasonably popular. The grade distribution is interesting though as the majority of them got a 6, compared to food tech where the majority got a 9.