Meet the Department
Physical education plays a critical role in educating the whole student. Research supports the importance of movement in educating both mind and body. Physical education contributes directly to development of physical competence and fitness. It also helps students to make informed choices and understand the value of leading a physically active lifestyle. The benefits of physical education can affect both academic learning and physical activity patterns of students. The healthy, physically active student is more likely to be academically motivated, alert, and successful.
With the sport and physical activity industry riding high on the success of the Olympic Games, the number of career opportunities /pathways has increased.
Possible careers include:
Exam Success
The college enters pupils in the AQA GCSE Physical Education examination
Sporting Celebrations Academic Year 2019-20
This year our pupils have demonstrated resilience and adaptability to ensure we continue to lead the way in yet another successful St Richard’s year of PE and Sport. The first half of the academic year saw our College teams continue to have outstanding performances at national, county and local level. The second half of the 2019-20 academic year demonstrated how strong and dynamic our pupils are in the face of adversity.
All pupils were able to adjust to new methods of participating in PE and our sporting excellence continued to thrive. Virtual Sports Day, Virtual School Games and our Lockdown Challenges all produced incredible and inspiring performances. These events brought pupils, staff and parents/carers together in competitive and inclusive sport. Most recently, St Richard’s won the Virtual X-Country competition against all of the other schools in the Hastings and Rother area.
We continue to see a rise in the number of pupils representing local area and county teams in a wide variety of sports including: football, rugby, hockey, kite surfing, golf, basketball, cricket, karate, horse riding, athletics, cross country and swimming. We look forward to these activities being able to continue across the UK without interruption.
KS3: KS3 pupils have been given a series of lessons by their PE teacher on Google Classroom. The topics being studied by each year group are shown below. Pupils should complete the weekly tasks and submit their work to their class teacher.
KS3 pupils experience a range of activities from a broad-based programme.
These areas include, invasion games, individual activities and net games.
Apart from practical experience in each activity, pupils should increase their knowledge and understanding and learn to evaluate personal performance and the performance of others.
Pupils are practically assessed on performance , knowledge and understanding , health and fitness along with their evaluating skills.
KS4 – Sports Studies – Exam Board: AQA
Main features of course content
The GCSE course is offered in Learning Pathway 4. The course is both practical and theoretical.
Practical
Pupils will be practically assessed as a performer across a range of activities. Pupils can also be assessed in other activities which may not be offered at the college.
Practical marks from three activities will make up their practical coursework marks, along with marks from a controlled assessment piece linked to one practical activity.
Practical Assessment – 30%
Controlled Assessment – 10%
Pupils are assessed on the practical content under the following headings:
Theory Assessment
Pupils will be assessed in two exams at the end of the two year course:
Paper 1: The human body and movement in physical education and sport – 30%
Paper 2: Socio-cultural influences and wellbeing in physical activity and sport – 30%
There is one tier of entry, covering grade 9 – WT
extra-curricular activities
The department run a number of extra-curricular sports clubs at lunchtime and after school.
This changes throughout the year depending on the sporting season.
A grid of clubs is available on the website and is updated every term.
The college also offers representative opportunities to all pupils in a wide range of sporting activities.
Fixtures and results will be posted on the College website and on the College’s Twitter page.
Students will be assessed in two activities rather than three. These can be two individual activities, two team activities or one of each.
The overall weighting of the NEA will remain at 40% of the total qualification. The NEA will be marked out of a total of 75 marks (25 marks for each activity and 25 marks for the Controlled Assessment written element). We will then scale these marks.
This year we’ll be moderating by post. There’ll be no moderation visits and work will be moderated using video evidence of students’ performances.
We will be using postal moderation for summer 2021.
Please note, should there be any industry wide changes to the exam timetables for summer 2021 as a result of Ofqual/JCQ regulation, these dates may be subject to change.
There are no other planned changes to our GCSE Physical Education specification or assessments.