Physical Education
To develop a love for sports/physical activity through improving fitness, understanding of rules and regulations, developing key skills of teamwork, communication, leadership and sportsmanship to enable students to keep fit in order to lead healthy, active lifestyle and/or play sports to a higher level.
Course Details
A Level Physical Education – OCR – H555
Specification – https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/234833-specification-accredited-a-level-gce-physical-education-h555.pdf
Course Description
The A Level PE course requires students to develop their knowledge and understanding of the physiological and psychological factors affecting performance and the socio-cultural issues in physical activity and sport, both through classroom study and through practical performance.
Students will have 5 hours of A Level PE lessons, each week in the classroom, delivered as a mix of single and double lessons. Students will be expected to complete 4-5 hours of independent study per week, including homework tasks, extra reading and revision/exam preparation. The lessons will be split between the different sections of the course. In year 1 you will study anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, skill acquisition and sport psychology. In year 2 you will study exercise physiology, socio-cultural and contemporary issues and complete the performance in physical education non-exam assessments.
It is imperative that students are taking part in either a sport competitively, including taking part in regular competitions/events, or they are regularly involved in coaching a team in a sport.
It will benefit students if they have strong knowledge from GCSE, or are studying Biology, Maths, Physics or Psychology at A Level.
Programme of Study
Students will study each of the 4 sections of the course:
- Physiological factors affecting performance – This section includes applied anatomy and physiology, exercise physiology and biomechanics where students will learn how the body enables you to exercise and how it is affected by exercise. They will also gain a greater understanding on how developments in technology have led to improvements in performance.
- Psychological factors affecting performance – This section includes skill acquisition and sport psychology where students will learn about how we develop skills and how different aspects such as personality and attitude can affect our performance.
- Socio-cultural issues in physical activity and sport – This section includes sports and society and contemporary issues in physical activity and sport where students will learn about issues that affect participation, development and performance in sport around the World
- Practical Activity Assessment and Evaluating and Analysing Performance (AEP) – This section includes a practical performance assessment in 1 sport as either a performer or coach. Students must be taking part regularly in competitions in their sport outside of school. Students will also have to complete an Evaluation and Analysis of Performance for Improvement (EAPI), where students will watch a live performance, analyse the strengths and weaknesses and justify a suggested action plan to improve one aspect of their performance.
Assessment
Physiological factors affecting performance
- 90 marks
- 2 hours
- 30% of the overall A Level grade
Psychological factors affecting performance
- 60 marks
- 1 hour
- 20% of the overall A Level grade
Socio-cultural issues in physical activity and sport
- 60 marks
- 1 hour
- 20% of the overall A Level grade
Practical Activity Assessment and Evaluating and Analysing Performance (AEP)
- 60 marks
- 30% of overall grade
- Students will be assessed through a practical moderation of their performances, this will require a minimum of 3 videos of them in competition, as well as log books detailing all competitions and results they’ve taken part in for their sport throughout year 12 and 13. If they are being assessed as a coach, it will require students to provide 20 detailed plans of 1 hour coaching sessions, a minimum of 3 videoed coaching sessions, as well as evaluations of the 20 sessions they have coached. To be completed by March of year 13, with an external moderation between 31st March-15th May.
- Students will also be assessed through an oral presentation (30-40minutes) given directly after watching a performance, to evaluate the performance and suggest a 2 month training programme to improve their skills and fitness, relating their analysis to all theoretical aspects of the course. To be completed by March of year 13.
Home Learning
Students will be given homework tasks each week to complete, these will be set on Show My Homework and include activities such as:
- Extended reading around the subject, using up to date examples and scientific reports.
- Research a new topic to gain initial knowledge that will be developed in future lessons
- Answer exam questions on a topic
- Create presentations on a topic to deliver to the class
As well as completing the weekly homework tasks, students should be reading through their class notes after each lesson to check what they have understood, so they can ask their teacher questions or for more help if needed, as well as to help them store the information learnt in their long term memory. To help them with revision for the exams, students should create revision resources for each topic as they are learning them, rather than leave it all to the end, as this will save them time in year 13, and also help store the information in their long term memory as they will be recalling it more regularly.
Where can PE take you
Further Study
Degrees in
- Sport Science
- Sports Coaching
- Sports Journalism
- Physiotherapy
- Parks, Recreation and Leisure Studies
- Business Administration and Management
Careers
- PE teacher
- Physiotherapist
- Professional Sports Person
- Sports Coach
- Sports Policy Developer
- Fitness Instructor / Personal Trainer
- Nutritionist
- Sports Journalist
How parents can support their child’s learning
- Ask your child to describe what they learnt in their lesson
- Get your child to teach you something they learnt today, see if they can help you remember it, as this will help ensure they understand it and consolidate their own learning.
- Get your child to regularly create revision posters / flash cards to help recap information
- Use your child’s workbooks / revision posters / flash cards to ask them questions and test their knowledge / help them to revise it regularly e.g. on a car journey, whilst making/eating dinner.
- Encourage your child to take part in sports clubs in and out of school and support them with it
Watch sports matches / events with your child, and ask them questions that would relate to A Level PE theory, such as; which muscles are the athletes using in that skill?; how is your breathing affected by exercise? How can modern technology improve sports for players and spectators? How did sports such as football evolve from pre-industrial revolution activities? How does a footballer make a ball swerve in a free kick?
Useful Links
- James Morris revision clips – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzh4kOin3WAqKL76NpiwuRoLrJDg65K16
- PE4Learning – https://www.pe4learning.com/
- Theeverlearner – https://theeverlearner.com/availableCourses?curricula=1
- Teachpe.com – https://www.teachpe.com/
- Brian Mac – Fitness Tests – https://www.brianmac.co.uk/eval.htm
- Glossary of terms – https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/http-stgprd-ocr.ucles.internal-images-281629-glossary-of-terms.pdf
- OCR A Level PE book 1 – https://www.amazon.co.uk/OCR-Level-PE-Book-1/dp/1471851737/ref=asc_df_1471851737/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310977458808&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11720380680309718201&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046033&hvtargid=pla-565384759116&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
