Physical Education (PE)

Key Stage 3 and 4 Core PE

Students in PE follow the new ULT PE curriculum consisting of 9 KPIs across 3 strands: ‘Fit to Perform’, ‘Fit to Lead’ and ‘Fit for Life’. The ‘Fit to Perform’ strand assesses student’s ability to perform certain skills and techniques across a range of sports and activities. It focuses on control, accuracy and precision in isolation and competitive situations. The ‘Fit to Lead’ strand has close links with Sports Leaders UK and assesses the student’s ability to lead, manage and be creative within sporting situations. The final strand ‘Fit for Life’ is about leading a lifelong healthy active lifestyle, and assesses the student’s knowledge and understanding of this.  Students are expected to meet the KPIs in team and individual sports across the year to mirror the demands of the GCSE.

Students also receive a termly PE homework project in Years 7 and 8, linking to all three strands and feeding into the GCSE PE criteria to develop knowledge and understanding in preparation for options selection. 

KS4 OCR Cambridge National PE Option

Students start their PE option in Year 9, and follow a 3-year scheme of work, which adds additional hours to their weekly core lessons. In the current A*-C specification students are assessed through their practical performance across four sports, and sit a 1hour 30min written theory exam. Students also produce a written personal exercise program and analysis of performance on one of their chosen sports. The weighting for the current specification is 60% practical and 40% written examination.

The new OCR Cambridge National qualification in Sport is underway in PE, and Year 9 to 11 students have begun the new Dinstinction*-Pass specification. Practical assessment has a focus on performance in both individual and team sports, where students are to select 2 sports; one a team sport, one an individual sport.  Students are also expected to officiate their specialist sports, and plan, lead and deliver a skills session on their chosen sport.  There is also the opportunity for students to evaluate and analyse performance through the completion of a written coursework.  Students are also expected to sit a 60 minutes theory examination at the end of Year 11, which forms one of their units.  The units for this course include: R051: Contemporary issues in sport (examination unit), R053: Sports leadership (practical unit), R052: Developing sports skills (practical unit) and R054: Sport and the media (coursework unit). 

KS5 Cambridge Technical in Sport and Physical Activity Option

Students can opt to study the Cambridge Technical in Sport and Physical Activity at Level 3, either as smaller Extended Certificate or the larger Diploma. Students are assessed through written pieces of coursework, practical performances in a variety of sports, leadership tasks, fitness tests and health scenario tasks.  

Enrichment

The Sports department offers a large variety of enrichment activities throughout the year such as netball, football, basketball, gymnastics and these are open to all ages and abilities. The clubs are extremely popular and are a great way of learning or developing new skills and techniques as well as competing against other schools, both locally and regionally.

Annual Sports Personality Event

As part of student recognition students are awarded for their efforts and achievements within sport and PE.  This is a fantastic event where students, staff and parents can celebrate achievement together.

Annual Performance Showcase

Our biggest event in PE is the annual Gym and Dance display, which was a huge success at the Wyvern Theatre last year and was held for two nights at the academy last year. Together PE and Dance recruited over 150 excited, committed and enthusiastic students to perform in a night of vaults, somersaults, dance, balances and free running techniques.

If you have any queries about the PE curriculum, please contact the Curriculum Leader, Mrs Boucher, via email at danielle.boucher@swindon-academy.org