PE GCSE practical - help! Un

[Elizo]

Hi all,

DS is going into year 11. Heading for strong grades (7-9) in most subjects but PE looking like a car crash. Both the school and I tried to put him off it - you live and learn. He plays football out of school in a local team so that is one sport (although teacher said something about how the mark wouldn’t be high). At this point he doesn’t know what other sports to do. He is talking about the 800 or 1500m but surely he needs to train??! PE teachers both left but maybe I need to talk to new one asap. Any advice on how he might get not terrible practical marks at this point welcome. He should do well in theory so hoping he can not tank entirely, although we know it won’t be the grades he will be getting in other subjects. Any advice welcome.

Thanks

GCSE was Edexcel board here.

We filmed
Teen stating name, school and exam number,
Each Basic skill listed in mark scheme in isolation
Each Advanced skills in isolation (everything listed in mark scheme that they could do and other advanced skills)
Formal performance under pressure

Was 5 minutes long by the time we had edited to add title slides.

Don't just video them doing a sport, study the marking criteria and make sure you give clear examples of as many things listed in the criteria as possible.

If school does Football, athletics and Table tennis then there shouldn't be a need for footage unless you are unhappy about the marks given.

Probably best to check when your son goes back what sports the school do for PE and go from there.

As said my son didn't need any footage and he got 66 out of 75 for the practical.

Yes I agree with @Emyj15, if they have done those sports in school already then he may have enough there. It is just about how high the marks will be in school – I think a lot of DC want to use their out-of-school sports as they will do better (to continue to bang on about athletics, DS’s sprinter mate would get a better time on an actual athletics track, with blocks, and in a decent seeded open race against other lads of similar standard).

But none of that is essential – at this stage I would just get him to find out what he can use from school or what they are planning to do, and see if you need to offer anything else. Looking at the spec, I don’t think parkrun would be acceptable for xc as it doesn’t fit the spec in terms of terrain. But happy to be corrected on that. [not a PE teacher!]

@Whywhwhy
Can I ask you why the swimmers are expected to be at such a higher standard for their sport compared to say ski-ing or table tennis? It doesn't seem to be a like for like marking system at all.

This is really helpful thank you! Was this recently? And your DC did trampoline, dance and gymnastics? Sorry OP - just a quick question to this poster then I’ll bugger off!!

My DD did swimming and she got full marks. She does swim for a club but isn’t county level. I think it was all very straightforward stuff. Same for running (1500 and cross country). The football let her down as even though she is good her team aren’t, so she couldn’t show the skills in a match. She’s just got a very high 9 at GCSE.

That's interesting @newmum1976. I guess it's a bit subjective, like eg art, and depends on the teacher. At dds school, there's national and regional swimmers not getting any where near full marks.

@NotDonna
Yes, results were last week.
Practicals were marked by teacher but then teen was chosen for moderation so school assessed trampolining was redone in front of the moderator and I understand they also looked at the video evidence that had been submitted.

It really isn’t subjective - there will be AOs like any subject, with criteria that have to be met. Just like any GCSE, even English lit.

Marks are moderated and have to follow the mark scheme.

It was all moderated so I don’t think it was subjective. No marks were changed after the assessment day.

Her school did take a group of them
to the pool 3 times to get all the footage for each skill, so the PE teacher was very on it.

School gave us the practical performance assessment criteria to refer to when planning video evidence. But this is also available online if you go to the exam board website.

I've just read through the link someone kindly provided upthread.

I find the criteria really strange!

I cannot fathom why it's not just on one's fastest time.

So instead of just saying for any kind of timed event, eg swimming, those who can do 50m freestyle in eg under 30 seconds get a 9 or whatever, it's all about technique. Nothing to do with your time. These seems remarkably unfair on eg a national level athlete who trains 10x per week, is awesome, but eg breaths side on fly might be awarded a lower grade than someone who got to stage 6 and stopped, is miles slower but technically perfect.

As a swimmer myself, I find this utterly absurd.

I agree. My DD found the whole
process very annoying as she just wanted to film that she was a good swimmer. Instead, she had to break down each stroke into left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. Totally ridiculous when she was doing breaststroke! It worked in her favour in the end as she wouldn’t have got full marks if it was just marked by time. Her friend got full marks and she’s never swam for a club!! But she has perfect technique.

Wow, that's bonkers @newmum1976 .

Yes, this will very much suit my daughter too, but I feel very very sorry for the fantastic swimmers who train so hard to get good times and won't (necessarily) be rewarded at all for it at gcse.

@Elizo - the school has a decent cross country team and takes them to a couple of competitions and gets them filmed there. DD now understands why, in Yr7, she was asked to stand in a certain place after her race and film older pupils. DD also joined a local athletics team and has done some events with them and will do again this year.

My dd did it last year and got the swim coach to film each segment in a training session plus she had to submit filmed swim
competitions at 2 or 3 different meets ;hard as covid knocked so many out). We had to do the same for gymnastics and trampolining it took hours to gather it all over many months. Two of those sports she competed at national competitions so to hear others can get the same marks doing a quick game at school seems crazy.

tbf (and with all credit to those DC swimming so fast and doing other sports so well) I think it's a good thing that the PE GCSE is to some extent inclusive - in other words, it's not as simple as "who's the fastest? right they get the top mark"

It's a good thing to have good technique, and I imagine that if the very fast swimmer with poorer technique improved their technique, wouldn't their times improve too? I'm no expert on swimming but that would certainly hold true for athletics (which I do know about).

So the focus to some extent is on improvement and technical knowledge and skill, and demonstration of that. I think that's a good thing. Suggests that even if you are not the very fastest or highest or furthest you can still gain a good mark.

Hopefully those who swim the fastest or do the best in other ways in their sport outside school garner other rewards. I am sure they do.

Reading with interest in case this GCSE will suit my daughter. Based on what some of you have said who are in or through this process, is it fair to say that if the school has a proactive and 'on it' PE team or a strong focus on sport/good facilities etc, there is a greater chance of success? I say that as I'd have some queries on this at our school - and if the video-ing and evidence all have to be gathered outside of school, this could be a stretch!

Thanks so much for very helpful advice all. DS has said new teacher has said they are discussing the practical on Friday. He said him and his friend are going to do tennis. He hasn’t played at all for ages and not something they do at school. He was good at it when younger, but never taught. I said I wasn’t sure this was a good idea. He said he is going to talk to the teacher and then decide (also known as ‘butt out’). I did suggest if he is convinced about tennis I could pay for some private coaching..

He also said what is the issue if he gets high grades in everything except PE. I said it’s worth trying and he agreed..I’ll update later in case useful for others

If he’s a smart kid, he could get half marks in the practical and still get a 7 plus, so I wouldn’t stress. The practical is only worth 30% of the mark.

Has he considered weightlifting, the link below is for a free six week introductory course. You'd have to check if you have a gym in your area.

Raise the Bar - British Weight Lifting

Thanks. If he could get a 7 that would be fab as he hoping for 7s and 8/9s in other subjects. Let's see

He is a gym goes so the weights could be good. I'm hoping teacher will advise to do something in school as with football twice a week and so much other work to be doing time is short...

Changed so much since I did mine far too long ago to remember! Was one of hardest / longest exams I’ve done, inc my uni degree work! We had to know the rules and regs for 5 sports, plus 2 days of practical demo with an examiner watching both days! Then a couple more papers on anatomy and physiology, in great depth in some areas than my dance and sports degree course. It was
known as being really hard / labour intensive and was handful of high grades nationally; was greatly reduced over next few years. Funny how old makes me
feel when talking about how it was in the old days! 😯😆