Sports Science encom­passes prac­tical involve­ment in a broad range of indi­vidual and team sports and also exam­ines theor­et­ical areas related to Phys­ical Educa­tion. These include study of the skeletal, muscu­lar and circu­lat­ory system as well as reas­ons for parti­cip­a­tion, train­ing, fitness, diet and injury.

If you have good skills across a range of sports and you are inter­ested in under­stand­ing how your body works and, perhaps, how to make it work better, then this could be the subject for you.

The course enables students to gain know­ledge and under­stand­ing of:
The human body
The effects of exer­cise on the human body and its perform­ance
The prin­ciples and meth­ods of train­ing
Health, diet, drugs and injur­ies
Rules, tactics and safety aspects of selec­ted phys­ical activ­it­ies
The skills and abil­it­ies for effect­ive parti­cip­a­tion in selec­ted activ­it­ies
The assess­ment and eval­u­ation of these activ­it­ies.
Students will also plan and carry out a personal exer­cise programme (PEP) which will be directly related to their chosen sport for analysis of performance.

Scheme of Assess­ment
Unit 1  The Theory of Phys­ical Educa­tion - writ­ten paper of 1.5 hours -  40% of GCSE
Covers: ‘Healthy active life­styles’ and ‘Your healthy, active body’.

Unit 2  Perform­ance in Phys­ical Educa­tion
Covers ‘Prac­tical perform­ance’ and ‘Analysis of perform­ance’.
Analysis of perform­ance 10% of GCSE
Course assess­ment of prac­tical work 25% of GCSE
Prac­tical exam­in­a­tion 25% of GCSE
Students must select 4 activ­it­ies for their prac­tical work, either in games or PE. Being a leader (coach) or an offi­cial (umpir­ing, ref) is also an option if the student is deemed to be a suit­able candid­ate to carry this out.

NB: Not all the activ­it­ies avail­able will be offered. It will depend on time and facil­it­ies avail­able and also on student expertise.

Each prac­tical is marked out of 10
9/10 = excep­tional, 7/8 = good/very good, 5/6 = average/above aver­age, 3/4 = below aver­age, 1/2 = poor

Specific­a­tion: EdEx­cel  Phys­ical Educa­tion 2PE01
Click here to down­load the current specific­a­tion for this GCSE course.

The Future
The health and leis­ure industry is the fourth largest employer in this coun­try. If you are think­ing of coach­ing, teach­ing, leis­ure manage­ment, sports science, physio­ther­apy, sports journ­al­ism or sports devel­op­ment, then this subject could help.