PE

Why choose this subject?  

Why study Physical Education? 

 ‘Promote, participate, perform 

We aim to: 

• Promote healthy active lifestyles 

• Challenge thinking building knowledge and skills 

• Develop performance 

• Enrich the lives of our young people through extensive extra-curricular activity 

PE 

Physical Education at Cloughwood Academy provides a challenging and motivating environment for high quality teaching and learning. This leads to enjoyment in participation ensuring our students foster a love of PE and Sport. We inspire our students to be fit for life, work with resilience, develop teamwork and perform with confidence. Our high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. 

We provide a curriculum model which is both broad balanced and ambitious. Learning opportunities arise every lesson and we use this to inform precision planning and improve student knowledge, performance, and resilience. As a department we define the powerful knowledge our students need and help them to use, apply, and retrieve this knowledge to be used now or in the world of work and further education. We teach students skills that will positively impact on their future. We aim to deliver teaching and learning opportunities that inspire all students to succeed in sport and performance. The skills taught in physical education improve students’ performance, sharpen their knowledge of strategy and tactics, and help them to transfer knowledge from one context to another, including sport, recreational, and outdoor activities. Cooperation and collaboration with others, as part of a team, understanding fairness, resilience and equity of play are life-long values we embed. Students will also strive to achieve their personal best in fitness activities. 

KS4 Physical Education  

GCSE PE offers students the opportunity to gain an understanding of sport from a theoretical perspective and improve their own practical ability. The course involves a mixture of focused practical sessions and interesting theoretical content that is applicable to students’ own experiences within sport. 

What will your child will learn?  

Core Physical education 

The core PE curriculum aims to promote, perform and participate this gives students the opportunity to focus on physical, social, cognitive and fitness development through participation in a broad and challenging range of sports and physical activities.  

See curriculum plan. 

GCSE Physical Education 

What does the course involve? 
The course is divided into three sections. 

Physical factors affecting performance.  
In this section students will study topics such as the skeletal, muscular, respiratory and cardiovascular systems. As well as learning about movement analysis and types of training. 

Socio-cultural issues and sports psychology. 
In this section of the course students will consider the factors that affect participation, the commercialisation of sport and the psychology of sport. 

Practical performance. 
Students must choose three different sports to be assessed in, at least one of which must be a team sport and at least one an individual sport. Students are assessed on their range of skills, quality of skills, physical attributes and decision making in a competitive situation. 

Students will also complete a 14 hour piece of coursework, in which they will analyse the performance of an athlete and design an action plan to improve one aspect of their performance. 

How will I be assessed? 

Paper 1: Physical factors affecting performance (1 hour exam) - 30% 

Paper 2:  Socio-cultural issues and sports psychology (1 hour exam) - 30% 

Practical performance (Internally assessed and externally moderated) - 40% 

• Team sport - 10% 

• Individual sport - 10% 

• Team or individual sport - 10% 

• Evaluation and analysis of performance (14 hour written coursework) - 10% 

Are there any LOTC experiences in Physical Education?  

During KS3/4 Students will be able to access a number of LOTC experiences these include health and nutrition talks at Manchester United, Mountain Biking at Delemere Forest and gaining cultural capital whilst studying the history of football at the national football museum. All this whilst also having the opportunity to represent their school in variety of sports against other schools. Cloughwood Academy also have a strong link with other local schools in which we gain access to there fitness suite. To further broaden pupils horizons we are also planning our departments first foreign visit to look at sport on an international level.   

How will the skills that I develop help me in my future career? 
Whilst studying physical education you'll gain many valuable skills that will also help you in other subjects as well as your future career. Some of the skills that you will develop include: 

Communications skills 

Many aspects of PE involves working in teams towards a common goal. Through playing team sports and problem solving with others, you'll develop clear communication skills that will help you in the workplace. Every employer looks for candidates who are able to communicate well verbally and in writing. 

Social skills 

Physical education is a very social subject and can involve a lot of group work. You'll learn how communicate and socialise with people in an effective way. When you start working, you'll encounter people from a range of different backgrounds, each with different personalities. Studying PE will help you learn how to best communicate with people in a team in order to produce the best results. 

Analysis and evaluation 

At every level of PE you will be asked to analysing your own and others' performance while looking for ways it could be improved. This is a particularly useful skill to have in your career as you'll often have to critique your own work and identify areas for improvement. If you work in management, you'll also benefit from the soft skills that PE teaches and will learn how to deliver messages clearly and effectively. 

Physical fitness 

Whilst studying physical education, you'll also benefit from being physically fit! Not only will this help you in the physical side of the subject itself, but it'll also improve your general well-being. Doing regular exercise is proven to relieve stress and promote good mental health. 

Careers linked to GCSE PE  

The GCSE Physical Education course includes content from the areas of biology, physics, maths, nutrition, psychology and sociology. A wide range of content is covered within a sporting context, providing students with both skills and knowledge that could prove valuable regardless of which path the choose afterwards. 

 What could I do next with GCSE Physical Education? · A level Physical Education · BTec Level 3 in Sport · Physiotherapist · Sport/Fitness instructor · Sports Scientist · Dietician/Nutritionist · Sports Engineering · Coach/Trainer · Sports Medic · Teacher · Sports Administrator · Performance Analyst 

What your child will gain from this subject 

Physical education can provide an avenue for both social values and concepts for it parallels life more closely than many other school subjects. Physical education exercise’s both the mind and the body and fulfils numerous basic needs for each child. Equally important is the role played by physical education in building character and resilience. The ideals of fair play, teamwork, honesty and co operation are exercised daily in physical education. Thus physical education has an enormous amount to contribute as preparation for adulthood.