Contact Teacher: Mr T Godfray, Team Leader PE
Exam Board: AQA
Vision
We are an innovative department that stimulates all students through our widely recognised sporting excellence. Our intense and dynamic curriculum, competitive inter-house and extra-curricular activities, allows students to experience PE in all its fullness. Our Sports Leaders will develop leadership skills to support our partnerships through extended relationships within the wider community.
Physical Education Learning Journey
This is a visual representation of how students' knowledge and skills develop through the PE curriculum.
(click on the image below to view a larger version)
Why study Physical Education?
A-level PE allows you to acquire and develop your practical sporting skills while also enabling you to evaluate your performance. It also allows students to study the theory behind the practical. The course is aimed at those who enjoy sport but want to bring to it an academic dimension. Physical Education links particularly well with Science subjects. Students from this course have entered degree courses in Teaching, Physiotherapy, Sports Science, Sports Rehabilitation and Mathematics.
Course details
Module 1: Factors affecting participation in physical activity and sport
Applied anatomy and physiology
Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the changes within body systems prior to exercise, during exercise of differing intensities and during recovery.
Skill acquisition
This section focuses on how skill is acquired and the impact of psychological factors on performance. Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the principles required to optimise learning of new and existing skills.
Sport and society
Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the interaction between, and the evolution of, sport and society.
Module 2: Factors affecting optimal performance in physical activity and sport
Exercise physiology
Students will understand the adaptations to the body’s systems through training or lifestyle, and how these changes affect the efficiency of those systems.
Biomechanical Movement
Students will develop knowledge and understanding of motion and forces, and their relevance to performance in physical activity and sport.
Sport Psychology
In this section students will develop knowledge and understanding of the role of sport psychology in optimising performance in physical activity and sport.
Sport and society and the role of technology in physical activity and sport
Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the interaction between, and the evolution of, sport and society and the technological developments in physical activity and sport.
How the course is taught and assessed
Six units of theory work split into two modules of study. Each is examined through a 2 hour written exam each worth 35% of the A-level course.
Practical Content 30%: Students assessed as a performer or coach in the full sided version of one activity plus a written/verbal analysis of performance.
Entry requirements
Students wishing to study for this A-level will need to recognise the balance between practical and theoretical ability. Ideally, students should have studied GCSE PE and gained a Grade 6, although students without a GCSE in PE will be considered.
All students will be expected to be participants in sporting activities preferably regularly attending activities outside of normal school hours. It is important that prospective students recognise the significant scientific content that is covered on the course and it is essential that at least grade 5s in GCSE double Science are achieved.