A Level Physical Education

Summary

Do you have a passion for physical wellbeing and health? Eager to support the next generation with athletes with injury management, sports psychology, and nutrition? Have you considered careers in health, sports science, coaching and business management or assisting in local government initiatives? If you have answered “yes” to any of the above, then A Level PE could be for you!

A Level PE immerses learners in contemporary issues in sport and performance analysis, whilst expanding on knowledge acquired on the key bodily systems from GCSE and BTEC pathways. You will have the opportunity to explore issues such as why athletes take drugs in sport as well as learning about the history and heritage of sport in the UK.

Physical Education is taught on the AQA exam board and is a linear qualification. This means that the two external examinations are undertaken at the end of year two. A Level PE is made up of two examinations, a written piece of coursework that analyses your own performance and finally, a practical performance as either a coach or performer in one sport only. The coursework is worth 30% of the overall qualification

Entry Requirements

A minimum of five GCSEs at grade 4 and above, including English Language and Maths.

A grade 6 in GCSE PE; or a minimum of grade 5 in GCSE Biology or 5-5 in GCSE Combined Science.

Course Content

You study six units over the two-year A Level.

• Anatomy and Physiology’: This is where you will learn about the key fundamentals and systems that allow our body to work efficiently. This includes work on the heart, lungs, muscles, bones, and energy systems.

• Skill Acquisition’: An opportunity to delve into the learning of skills. Skill Acquisition follows on from GCSE by building on work undertaken on reaction time, skills continua, transfer and guidance and pairs this with memory, schema, and practice types.

• History and Sociology of Sport’: Interested to know where sports such as association football originated from or what makes a sport equitable? This unit will capture your interest. Looking at the origins of Tennis from the time of Henry VIII, to exploring modern contractual issues surrounding performers, this unit explores the history of the sport in the UK.

• Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology’: A module centered on sports injury, rehabilitation, and prevention along with some applied mathematical principles that make the difference between winning and losing. We explore concepts like angular momentum, fluid mechanics and manipulation of training methods.

• Sport’s psychology’: Interested in knowing why teams gel or how to support athletes following injury? This unit explores reasons elite athletes give for success and failure through attribution, through to team dynamics and effective leaders and coaching principles.

• Contemporary issues’: In this unit we look at some of the issues surrounding sport now. Think drugs in sport, the development of technology and its impact as well as how the law regulates sport. An interesting and insightful look into how modern issues are affecting performers and the development of sports.

Progression Routes

At several HE (Higher Education) institutions A Level PE is viewed as a life science. PE can open the doors to apprenticeships, coaching roles, personal training courses as well as traditional university routes in pathways such as sport and exercise science, teaching, physiotherapy, and osteopathy.

Some of our learners choose to complete A Level PE alongside their academy. You may wish to combine your study of PE with other sciences, such as Biology, Food Science and Nutrition, Psychology or Applied Science, or combine it with a humanities-based subject such as Sociology or History.

Additional Learning Opportunities

The learning journey in A Level PE will be interspersed with trips to places like Wimbledon, the Velodrome, Ice Skating, and some of our local University partners.

Many of our Physical Education learners are also part of our Sports Academy where you can combine your studies with an elite sporting programme. We also have a Sixth Form Talks series which includes talks from universities that offer sports-related courses and talks from academics about their research in this area.