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?)

My fear here is that the departments are all desperate for them to choose their subject, so if they think she's showing interest they'd be encouraging her to go for it regardless of whether it's a sensible choice for her or not

I have a Y9 non-sporty, dyspraxia child doing it and she’s thriving. She loves the theory and regularly comes top of her class in tests on it. She does play hockey out of school, but at a very low/non-competitive level and is a goalkeeper. Her school will do climbing with them for the individual which she’s tried and loves and you can quite quickly get to a decent level at with weekly sessions. Not sure about the 3rd sport yet but possibly skiing which she is more than competent at.

I’m pretty confident she can get a good grade even if her natural abilities will preclude an A. And I see her enjoyment and the fact that she’ll keep up physical activity in the years when many girls give them up as well worth the difference.

I do agree with @waxandwane about the incentive to keep active - many teen girls give up sports. This is a big plus of GCSE PE.

As I'm of the opinion that sport is really important (my dds have done at least 1 hour exercise per day at least 5 days a week since 8yo, non negotiable although they can choose their sport) in your position I would be absolutely delighted if my/your dd did pe gcse. Not because of the grade, I'd let that go and wouldn't care what they got, but because it would be mean they'd actually do some exercise. Dd has pe for the gcse itself at least twice per week; then or is on the standard non gcse subjects list too. So she'd be covering a decent amount of exercise in school which I'd welcome.

My parents made me choose subjects for GCSE they thought were ‘suitable’ which basically pushed me towards subjects I wasn’t interested in, and I did ok but I would’ve rather done something I was interested in, let her do it and she might surprise you, if she finds out it’s really not for her I’m sure she’ll be able to change subjects.

Thanks @waxandwane - that's really encouraging to hear. @arethereanyleftatall yes I do agree about the exercise element

This is the whole dilemma...we don't want to push her towards things she doesn't want to do but it's balancing that out with what we think would be better.

We've already let her make a language choice that wouldn't have been ours (she dropped Spanish at the end of y7 to start Chinese which will now be her sole language - seems alien to us that she isn't now learning a European language, but she really fancied doing it) and she's going to take Music, despite the fact that she's only been learning piano since the beginning of y8 so will probably be a bit behind there too. We don't want to stifle her but we want her to make sensible decisions

Although they also probably want good results too and should(!) have child's best interests at heart

Maybe she just needs the opportunity to be sporty, why not say to her if you’re doing PE you’ll need to do some extra sports out of school if you want to do well, so which is it going to be, athletics or football? And sign her up. She doesn’t need to be the best as long as she’s taking part.

It won't limit her A level choices if presumably she's taking two/three sciences, English lang/lit History or geography etc.
But she'll have to start loving sport! My son played rugby outside school and rowed competitively, plus did some other sport (can't remember). Lots of commitment time wise with practise two nights a week each sport and competitions/matches most weekends - that eats on to time for working in other subjects.

I must say @doramaar I think music GCSE with no grades in hand at all is a more doubtful proposition than PE with no outside sport. DD took music and was grade 4 or 5, with theory grades in hand too, in year 9/10, but still found it challenging. The theory in particular might be a hurdle.

The school’s previous grades are interesting but take them with a pinch of salt – often PE appeals to less academic students so their grades may correspond. DS2 was certainly the smartest in his A level PE class (not boasting – I was told this by more than one person) but far from the smartest in maths haha.

But I agree, good idea to discuss with her which three sports she would choose. As I said, boards will vary but I think all ask for one team sport, one individual and one that is either. Ask school what sports they support – at my school we used to get a climbing wall in regularly to help DC who hadn’t got access to sport outside school – often for financial reasons – which is of course another aspect of this.

Is she trying to choose subjects she thinks will be "easy"?
PE is not easy at all but is she thinking she'll not have to put in as much effort as if she did 3 sciences or history for example?
Point out how much work is involved and how she'll have to fit in 3 sports in her spare time - that is really going to eat into her free time.
If she still decides to go ahead, fair enough. I think PE is a good GCSE and if it helps her to get more exercise it's good. I just wondered if she was trying to have an easy life.
She has also picked music and I'm just wondering if she sees that as an easy option too (which it isn't!) She will have a hard time with that if she's only just started piano. She'll need to do a lot of practise in her spare time to get a good grade and she will have a lot of theory to learn.

Let her try it. If she hates it, she can switch. She's young. You can't always decide for your kids. What happens when she's older and chooses subject /career choices you don't agree with? Have the discussion by all means but respect her decision if she still wants to do it. She doesnt have to be the best. & she just might like it.

I'm obviously a very lax parent, my 14 year old is about to choose hers - state grammar - and whilst I am very interested and discuss with her what she wants to take I work on the basis that a) it's her taking them so I can't override her and b) they are gcse's so in the scheme of things?? It does help though that she obviously has to keep English, maths and all three sciences, one language and a humanity so the ability to make "mistakes" with choices is very limited I suppose as the compulsory ones are a good coverage of subjects. She is doing one arty subject because it's mostly practical , I'm not sure that is the right thing . I'd rather she keep both German and Latin as I think she has a flair for them but she only wants to keep one language which is German and take Classics instead of Latin as it does have a link.

She was actually talking about the horror of the pe gcse and saying that some very sporty girls she knows are hating it.

Reading your update @doramaar, I agree with @clary that I'd be more worried about a non musical child taking music than a non sporty child taking PE!

My offspring teaches music at GCSE and A level and despairs of the children who decide to do it but have no aptitude at all. They won't join extracurricular groups or attend workshops and these children will probably do appallingly as their parents see it as a soft option. Please don't encourage your child to choose music unless they're committed.

Re the music GCSE...I'm not so worried about that as although she has only recently started piano lessons, I do think she has musical aptitude (wish we'd started her years ago in retrospect!). I have some musical knowledge so can recognise that she is coming on well and will be able to help her with theory and composition if needs be. So felt more comfortable with this choice than PE, my instincts tell me she can do better in it.

She's definitely trying to pick what she believes will be the easiest, hence being averse to separate science or both humanities for example. The other one she has chosen on top of the compulsaries is business. To be fair to her she is autistic and she struggles with organisation and is not very motivated doing homework - she sees it as quite black and white that school should be for schoolwork and home shouldn't be.

My son was only good at one sport and even then developed a knee injury so was predicted a 5 - out of 3 x 20 (for the three sports) he got a 14 and 2 x12. But he studied hard for the theory and ended up with a 9 - GCSE PE is mostly science type stuff and it helps to be able to write essays. So yes I think she can achieve a 6 if she is bright. Really depends on the school I know of a girl who did trampolining and did not compete anywhere but school still gave her 18/20 for it.

Have a look at the sports. She has plenty of time to take up something like rock climbing, Kayaking or something that interests her. You video these so she can keep trying to get a good video!

I'm also surprised they are allowing her to do music, I thought you needed to be playing at grade 3/4 before they would consider it.
Has she done piano grades?
I think PE and Music together are pretty time consuming - do they start their GCSEs in Y9? That might help, but seems unusual for a grammar school

Re the music - honestly it’s unusual to take music GCSE (music BTEC is a bit different) without already being a musician.

Like I say, dd found it hard. She got a B (old school spec - but I gather it’s now more challenging) which was her lowest GCSE grade. She played from age 8 and was in lots of ensembles plus had weekly lessons.

Tbh the exam was fine for her, it was composing she found hard; it may be that your dd will excel there, not saying she won’t. But be aware that not having a musical background would be very unusual in any GCSE music class I have known (as opposed to, say, drama, which will certainly include students who don’t access it outside school).

See the post below from @Lifestooshort71

Yes they're starting gcses in y9. She hasn't done any piano grades yet, she only started learning in September, but there's no restrictions on who can take the GCSE.

We're not going to veto Music, she has to choose something at the end of the day and it's nice for her to do something creative. She's definitely not got enough artistic ability to do well at Art and from what I understand the coursework is brutal...she's had meltdowns over art homework already so keeping away from that! And Drama she doesn't want to do because she gets nervous speaking in front of people

@clary but if most schools start GCSEs in y10, she will have been learning piano for 2 years by that point? Like I say I do think she has an aptitude...when she's done practising the stuff from lessons she will play around, experimenting with things like how inverted chords sound different, almost simple composing...I think she's got more in her than just a child slowly plodding through the lessons tbh, but maybe that's just what I want to see as her mum, I don't know 😂

Fair enough then. I would ask her teacher too. I agree a creative GCSE is nice tbf tho I would kind of put PE in that category too. Or how about DT?

That's a good point, she has a year longer to get to the level and it sounds like you can help her.