GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Discussion and advice on GCSEs

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
11 Plus Platform - Online Practice Makes Perfect - Try Now
drinkmoretea
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 11:55 pm

GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by drinkmoretea »

Hello

First post for quite a while but hoping for advice from you experienced people.

DC is at a school that doesn't offer GCSE PE, however I suspect they'd be rather interested in it and therefore do well as it's something they love, and the information would be useful. From what I've read online (and looking at the syllabus), there is the learning/exam section and then the observation section in 3 sports (at least one which must be individual sport and at least one team sport). It seems that parents often have to video and submit observations of DC playing at club level (or higher), especially if it's not a sport the school does much of, so am prepared for that.

I am wondering how feasible it would be to do the exam outside of school in year 9 or 10, as an additional subject (school offers 10 GCSEs so this would be 11th). Have bought the textbook already and planning to read it soon in more detail to see how approachable it really is.

I'm interested in relevant experience please. In particular:
1. Is anyone aware of any centres that offer GCSE PE courses/tuition outside of school - in particular in London/the South East?
2. Would doing the exam early be particularly difficult in terms of the science learning side, if the child is keen to learn?
3. Would universities hold the early exam against DC? I regularly read that universities like GCSEs to be done at the same time, but doing GCSE PE in year 11 outside of school at the same time as the other GCSEs at school is not practical. Surely a GCSE done at home in year 9 or 10 would not be in DC's favour (as long as they got a good grade of course)

Thanks
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by hermanmunster »

Honestly best to just concentrate on the 10 and do PE / sport / reading about the topic in spare time.

Organising extra GCSEs that have to be done at a centre and that may not be local, can seem like a good idea at the time but become very wearing after a while and as you mention early results add nothing to Uni applications
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by Tinkers »

What HM said.
Unless your DC is looking to do something sport related later, there’s probably no value in doing a gcse PE outside of school in addition to everything else, and tbh even if they are then doing the sport or sports themselves regardless of the gcse is plenty enough.
scary mum
Posts: 8840
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by scary mum »

I agree, a friend's daughter is just qualifying as a PE teacher & didn't do GCSE PE. Concentrate on the 10 & just explain to your DC that it isn't available so can't be done.
scary mum
nyr
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:39 am

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by nyr »

DD is a keen sportswoman and her school doesn't offer GCSE PE but from Y12 onwards she was able to study for DiSE with the University of Loughborough, in conjunction with the national governing body of her sport. You might want to see if that's an option available to your DC. As an aside, DD found DiSE to be very boring - students napping at their desks - and poorly delivered so, with A levels on the boil, she decided it wasn't worth continuing with it.
drinkmoretea
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 11:55 pm

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by drinkmoretea »

Thanks to all for the feedback. @nyr had not heard of DiSE, thanks for mentioning it.
Hersetta
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:48 pm

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by Hersetta »

See below - inadvertantly posted twice
Last edited by Hersetta on Tue Nov 08, 2022 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hersetta
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:48 pm

Re: GCSE PE - doing it outside of school, and doing it early

Post by Hersetta »

I completely agree that PE is not an easy option to do outside of school. Daughter is doing GCSE PE and only plays one team sport outside of school but is at national team level. She is therefore reliant on school sports (she plays another similar team sport at school to a high level and is in the first team) but is completely reliant on school for her individual sport. Trying to arrange filming and assessment of 3 sports outside of school would be a nightmare. She has already been assessed at school and has an indictative score for her two school sports and has submitted footage for her main sport. What we are now struggling with is training footage as what is required for GCSE is so low level its things that her club would never do in training so we are having to arrange a special session (and hire the court) to ensure her and her teamates have the correct footage. Honestly, Pe gcse is the exam that requires the most parental support and input. If she wasn't predicted a 9 I would happily not have bothered with it. Don't underestimate the work required.
Post Reply
11 Plus Platform - Online Practice Makes Perfect - Try Now