GCSE PE Changes for 2016 – for first examination 2018
As someone who has been associated with examinations in PE since 1982 (the South Western Examinations Board for Certificate of Secondary Education) for an examination in 1984 I thought now would be a good time to share some thoughts on the ‘new’ GCSE for PE!
Clearly, the most significant change is the reversal of the current weighting to 60%/40% theory/practical (or as we must now refer to the practical, ‘non-exam assessment’) content.
For the non-exam assessment students have to be assessed on three (replacing four) activities. One team activity (from a choice/list of 19!) which includes squash, and one individual activity (from a choice/list of 21!) which also includes squash! The third activity can be either a team or individual one. Therefore, the total number of activities available is now 41! Previous numbers were, OCR 60, Edexcel 76 and AQA 118! Add in the additional factor that only player/performer can be assessed – there are no additional roles permitted! There are some ‘specialist activities (9 in total) for candidates with disability. Some activities have been singled out as not meeting the criteria such as ‘not comparable to other activities in terms of difficulty’ (fitness and health activities such circuit training, pilates and yoga) and rounders was specifically identified as not being acceptable! This all adds up to being significantly different to what we currently have but it does match the Ofqual principles of, ‘ensuring sound assessment practice, be manageable and ensure a qualification is not easily distorted …… in order to ensure parity and rigour’.
The theory content is now 60% (formerly 40%) and has considerably more content to reflect the additional subject content weighting.
We cannot claim that we were not warned! After the initial consultation period from July 2014 – September 2014 the DfE and Ofqual decided that future GCSE’s needed an ‘increase in demand at the level of a pass (current C) to reflect that of higher performing jurisdictions’, to ‘prepare top end students properly to progress to A-level or other study’ and finally that the ‘proposed content increases the level of demand by being sufficiently robust and challenging’.
In a nutshell this all means that the GCSE in PE is going to be made harder and more difficult! More than the goalposts have been moved and this is the most radical change since PE was made an examinable subject! It is a fact that GCSE PE students achieve very well in the practical/controlled assessment component and find the theory component the most difficult so the weighting reversal presents a huge challenge to both teachers and students!
You will need to read the published documentation in more detail to get the whole picture but look carefully at your year 8 students as they will be the first ones to sit this new style exam. You will probably have to look carefully at how you promote and ‘recruit’ to your GCSE PE and almost certainly question/re-examine your delivery model.
We await the publication of the three specifications in the summer with great interest!
Kirk Bizley was Chief Examiner for GCSE PE for 26 years. He has been commissioned to write text books on the new 2015 specification for both AQA and EdExcel. He presents our AQA GCSE courses.