Come talk to me about GCSE PE please.

[magentadreamer]

DD started her new Yr9 timetable on Monday. The school also starts KS4 in yr9 as well. DD was under the impression that as part of her compulsory PE lessons - two a week she would be doing a BTEC in PE. DD turned up for her first PE lesson to find herself in a mixed set where in her words " Everyone plays for the school, some play for the town and probably England as well" DD when it comes to sporty things is more egg and spoon race then 3 min mile if you get my drift. She does go to a couple of lunchtime clubs - aerobics and dance. DD was informed that this set would be doing GCSE PE and from what she has moaned told me it is a full GCSE and not a short course. Apparently the teacher did the hard sell on how the GCSE could lead onto doing A level PE to them.

Most exam boards seem to assess by 60% practical 40% theory.
I know that part of the theory is about the human body - DD loves Science so will be ok on that but what else do they have to do for the theory part? . Being dense what do the practical assessments consist of? Is it more about organising stuff then "little Johnny got an A* because he scored 100 goals in football"? The options booklet we got only mentioned the various BTEC's the PE dept offered so it came as a bit of a suprise to DD that she is going to be doing a GCSE. Thankfully the practical session each week won't be exclusively with the super sporty as they are allowed to chose various different sports to do and these are offered to all the sets.

I shouldn't laugh but the thought of DD being in the top set for PE is hilarious. Now I understand the comment her PE teacher made on DD's report about wanting her to do more team sports in order to represent the school...

They do have to participate in a sport and be assessed on their performance(DS did rugby and netball I think) but it can be part of in school lessons if they're not in a team outside. It can also include dance (various types) and swimming. One lad I know did golf. They need to show progress not olympic ability!

Depends on the exam board, but they will need to explain the theory behind the practice. eg devise a good warm up for jazz dance and explain what you would do diffently if it were for ballet.

The science part is more indepth physiology than the science gcse and they also learn about sports business theory.

I think that the in the sports part, they are assessed on different roles in the sport - performer, organiser, coach or leader (ie a team leader running an activity) - this is from DS2 who is studying sports GCSE as it's compulsory at his school.

For the practical work they have to be assessed on 4 different elements. These can be performer &/or organiser &/or coach/leader in up to 4 different sports.

Does she have just 2 hours a week PE?
I know of 3 different PE 'options' courses: BTEC, GCSE and NCS (two levels). They are all different and require different amounts of theory and practical sessions. But at our school all of these are 'options' subjects, so they might have 2 hrs 'regular PE' each week, plus 3 hours on their qualified course.

Many of our students do coaching qualifications and so on if they are doing a PE option, and are generally "very sporty" children.

Schools have to offer 2 hours a week exercise to all students (which does not include changing time and certainly not sitting in a classroom learning theory time). I'm a bit about this tbh!

DS2 is doing PE GCSE. I don't know all the details, but I do know that on top of the 2 ordinary PE sessions for the whole year they have about 3 more during the week, one of which is theory. They do have to choose 4 sports, but the selection is huge and they don't all have to be done at school. DS2 is thinking of skiing as one and the PE teacher said we have to take video of him to prove he can ski to the required standard! Since the clothes and helmet cover everything we could effectively film anyone (but we won't)!
BTW he is only average at sport (he is dyspraxic) but his enthusiasm seems to help. They don't have to be playing for the county.

Thank you for all your replies. I?ve had a nosey on various exam boards web sites and was actually amazed at all the sports that could be used in the practical assessments. DD rides at the weekend and one of the boards gives an exact spec, as to what they need to do and DD met all the requirements so I shall get her to ask her PE teacher how she would go about being assessed doing an external activity. She?ll love the idea of riding to get a GCSE.

DD school?s went from fifty min lessons to one hour lessons at the beginning of this year so PE went from three fifty min lessons to two one hour lessons a week. I never realised that the two hours didn?t include changing time Roisin. The other schools around here that I know about all do two one hour lessons as well for all year groups. GCSE PE is an option subject in these schools with I think three extra lessons a week over the two year course. DD?s school has always offered some kind of qualification in PE but never offered PE as an option. In previous years it was just a BTEC started in yr9 and depending on how they progressed it could be more than the BTE first cert. If DD is going to do a theory lesson a week for 3 years then they should cover all the theory needed. Plus looking at the points assessed for karate it did say that they only needed to be at a level which reflected 2 hours of lessons a week for 3 months ? which is pretty basic ? DD did karate when she was a little and dabbled with an after school class at the beginning of the year. I shall at least be able to reassure DD that she isn?t expected to be at Olympic Gold standard.....

DS took GCSE PE (he's now gap year). One point you should clear before your DD starts is who will be teaching the science part. DS's school was very short of science teachers and the PE teachers had to teach the science as well as the sports which wasn't ideal.

I know of schools where PE teachers teach science anyhow.

You get good & bad teachers in any subject, but in PE some schools timetable separate theory lessons while others seem to expect the teachers to muddle through the work somehow in the PE lessons themselves, which isn't ideal at all.