Physical Education GCSE

Physical Education

AIMS

The GCSE Physical Education course is entirely separate from the compulsory practical Physical Education and afternoon sporting enrichment lessons taken by all pupils across all Key Stages. The course introduced in September 2016 is noticeably more demanding and challenging. The AQA specification aims to improve the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of physical activity as well as provide them with the opportunity to demonstrate sporting excellence in a more limited range of recognised sports.

CURRRICULUM

The curriculum is designed to enable students to enjoy and understand the benefits of living a healthy and active lifestyle and to examine some of the factors that impact on sport and physical activity both within the community and at elite level. It can be sub divided into a number of inter-related yet discrete topics within the course:

Health, fitness and a healthy active lifestyle to include training programmes and diet
Interpretation of simple mathematical data to include graphs & charts
Cultural and social factors
Factors relating to sports psychology to include emotional health & well being
Elementary biomechanical principles relating to sport
The practical role of performer only
How individual differences influence performance
Equality & inequality within sport
International and other factors

Year 9:

Skills & ability, Target Setting, Information Processing, Guidance & feedback of performance, Arousal, Aggression, Personality, Motivation
Musculoskeletal systems, Joints, Health & Fitness, Fitness components, Fitness testing & its limitations, Data collection & analysis, Principles of Training, Training methods, Training thresholds, Prevention & recovery from injury, Altitude training, Warm ups & cooldowns
Practical – table tennis, swimming, athletics (pupil directed choice to satisfy AQA 1 x team, 1 x individual + 1 other activity)

Year 10:

Health & fitness, Sedentary lifestyles, Somatotypes, Energy use, Diet, Cardiorespiratory system, Cardiac system, Respiration, Aerobic & anaerobic exercise, EPOC, Immediate, short & long term benefits of exercise, Movement analysis, Levers & planes,
Social groups & factors affecting participation, Commercialisation, ICT & technology in sport, ethics in sport, spectator behaviour
Practical – table tennis, badminton, swimming, athletics assessment (pupil directed choice to satisfy AQA 1 x team, 1 x individual + 1 other activity)

Year 11:

6 & 9 mark questions, a recap of socio contemporary influences & health, fitness & physical activity units taught in years 9 & 10
NEA coursework; AQA practical assessment, video analysis and moderation

Theoretical modules will be taught by specialists from within the Physical Education department. Some timetabled lessons are practical where you will be assessed in a limited range of practical sporting activities. All pupils will be required to swim.

Much of the first year of the course is taught in Year 9 with the remainder delivered in Year 10. There is an expectation that pupils contribute fully to the sporting life of the school and further promote their sporting ambitions by participating in community sport. Year 11 provides pupils with the opportunity to revisit topics previously covered in more detail and is useful preparation for pupils in honing longer answer written answer techniques that will lead to a confident performance in public examinations. Throughout the course, all pupils are required to demonstrate sporting competence via the collection of video evidence.

How will I be assessed?

Pupils will undertake a focussed practical course in which each pupil’s practical sporting ability as a performer only will be assessed (40% of total examination mark). Year 11 focuses on the written controlled assessment component of the course. This links in with the practical work which combined are all internally marked and externally moderated. The remaining 60% of the marks can be gained in the final summer examination. Pupils should only consider GCSE Physical Education if they represent the school or a club in at least two recognised sporting activities: one ‘team’ activity, the other ‘individual’.

FACILITIES & RESOURCES

The Physical Education faculty has its own purpose built classroom for the teaching of all the academic units within the GCSE specification. On-site facilities include a large gymnasium, a fully equipped cardio fitness suite and a six lane 25-metre swimming pool. In addition, some PE lessons incorporate the use of the local park and the cricket ground at the East Lancashire Club, both adjacent to the main school building.

The school’s Harrison Playing Fields, a mile away at Lammack, have extensive indoor and outdoor facilities. There are two rugby and four soccer pitches, three cricket squares and courts for netball and tennis, a dance studio plus a sports hall large enough for six badminton courts and two cricket lanes

TRIPS & VISITS

QEGS is recognised nationally by the Association for Physical Education (afPE) for its commitment to Physical Education, School Sport & Physical Activity provision (PESSPA). It boasts an unrivalled extra curricular package that includes Saturday morning competitive sports across the year in football, netball & cricket. In addition to the weekly sporting fixtures organised locally and regionally, one of the highlights of the academic course is a visit to the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in March each year. Pupils are allowed to further their understanding of the use of ICT and Technology in Sport by using sophisticated software analysis tasks within the sporting faculty’s technology suites.

EXTRA CURRICULAR

For more information please contact:

Dr ME Butler

Head of Physical Education

mbutler@qegsblackburn.com