Mountain Biking as one of your sports for GCSE PE

One of my kids is just starting his GCSE course and has been told he needs to pick some sports, he has enjoyed mountain biking the last few times we went to Swinley and I was wondering if anyone’s kids or indeed younger posters picked MTB or other cycling discipline  as one of their sports for GCSE level? What did it involve, how did they show competency, did they need to compete etc?

He has 2 team sports already so just needs an individual sport

Mine is also thinking of doing the same. We are an mtb family and already race so hopefully it won’t be too hard to sort. I believe video evidence can be used, and there is an element of practice / development / improvement that needs to be demonstrated (probably going to use flat pedal skills such as manualling, bunny hops etc). Those skills are also part of the events at youth inter-regional / European champs so pretty valid ones to choose.

Unfortunately I’ve just got back from hospital – GCSE pe rugby has given him a broken collarbone first lesson today 🙁

I am not sure how relevant this is as this is going back to the 90’s and for higher PE but I used mountain biking as one of my sports.

I was competing very regularly then so we used my results as proof. Think also did a turbo based test. Also did my written element/experiment on mountain biking, studding the effects of interval training on endurance (not that common then) so this also added to the evidence.

In my case it worked really well using MTB instead of another sport.

I think competing would make it much easier to collate evidence of performance.

Good luck to thrm

Competing, rather than just riding, was an essential part of the course that my daughter has just started.  She hasn’t chosen cycling, but that principle applies across all the individual sports.  Your school sounds different though, as with hers the teachers already knew who competed and steered tem towards the GCSE PE, whilst others were steered into a lesser course, or away from PE altogether.

Video evidence has been used by all the people in previous years, both to show training and competition.  We may have raised the game by getting her a lactate threshold test at the start of the course and planning another one near the end to show progress…

Depending on what board you use, it’s probably not one of the allowed sports.

There’s a criteria that is must be possible for the teacher/moderator to reasonably asses the student since practical marks are assessed at a moderation day. Relying on outside assessment (as you would have to in MTB etc) leads to lack of a consistent standard.

Mrs Dubs had a student who was an international at something or other (martial arts IIRC) which she wasn’t allowed to use.

edit:
Actually, I think you’re stuffed as it’s a DofE approved list…
AQA board sports
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/physical-education/gcse/physical-education-8582/scheme-of-assessment/non-exam-assessment-nea-practical-performance-in-physical-activity-and-sport/performance-assessment-practical-performance-75-marks/individual-activity-list

Interesting – thanks for the info. Sounds like it might be getting reviewed but probably a slow process. https://www.youthsporttrust.org/examination-pe-it-fit-purpose-2018

We can probably tweak ours to work with road biking (already does a coached session) and needs to start with turbo training over winter for mtb (so can show power etc improvements). Indoor climbing would also be another good option for core (and collarbone rehab).

A few years ago now so not sure how applicable it is, but I did GCSE PE as an accelerated course over a few months. We just had to demonstrate our competency in our chosen sports, not in a competitive environment.

For the mountain biking assessment I made a video of myself riding, demonstrating various skills like cornering, steep climbs, drops etc. I was told that if there had been more than one person doing MTB we might have been taken to a park somewhere for an in person assessment instead. I can’t remember what I scored in that section, but got an A* overall so can’t have been too bad.

Other simple individual sports (that were available to us anyway) were ‘fitness’ (12 minute run), and ‘personal survival’ (doing some stuff in a swimming pool with clothes on).

My youngest lad did this, 4-5 years ago. Helped that his tutor (cyclist herself, although not MTB) was willing to come and spend the day at Gisburn, with her son also riding with us with a go pro to record the evidence. So, there are ways around the ‘practical assessment’ side of things if you (the school) can think creatively.

 Competing, rather than just riding, was an essential part of the course that my daughter has just started. She hasn’t chosen cycling, but that principle applies across all the individual sports.

That’s a bit shite imho – if the qualification is “PE” not “sport” why should a competitive element be required? Or, to put it the other way round, if it’s about the competition, not the physicality, are snooker and darts allowed then?

I think the obsession with competition is what puts a lot of people off physical activity – what’s wrong with being physically active, skilled and fit, without having to want to beat someone else at doing it?

I think the obsession with competition is what puts a lot of people off physical activity – what’s wrong with being physically active, skilled and fit, without having to want to beat someone else at doing it?

That’s what core-PE is for.

To get a GSCE you need to be a) good at it* and b) know about it.

*measured by being competitive.

Edit:

On a separate point, the syllabus & allowable sports changed in 2016/2017.

My lad did GCSE PE last year, used cycling and climbing as his individual sports, Badminton as his team sport.

Mountain biking per se. was not acceptable, but cycling included elements of off road. He was required to do an assessment on an activities weekend, and got full marks for it. His lack of enthusiasm for traditional team sports (which there is still a bias towards despite the changes to the curriculum) let him down overall, and he got a 7.

I thought the course was well structured with plenty of detailed attention to physiology, nutrition, training and biomechanics.

He enjoyed those bits which were relevant to him, but spent a lot of time on the margins of football/rugby/cricket sessions.

Guy in our club had a son do cycling for his GCSE last year. He was meant to be doing CX, but for some reason the goalposts or assessors changed at the last minute, and we ended up getting some club members together to film road race situations at the local closed road circuit.

I used to teach the mtb aspect of the GCSE PE with Edexcel. Was super easy. They had to show a certain level of ability on red routes to get a score out of 10, with all this being filmed. We had a few external moderators who watched one or two clips, then passed the whole lot. They were scoring very highly due to the awful assessment criteria. Most managed the black route at Bedgebury so most scored around 8-10 according to the AC.

They have now changed it so you cannot do mountain biking. They can however do track and road. That was with Edexcel anyway, so may be different with AQA for example. They will have an approved list they are able to choose from, so check with the PE department at the school.

Thanks for all responses, My son is also broken after first rugby game of the season.We will  get the list soon enough i guess.

This has got to be mega easy, enter a race, cruise round, gradually apply a bit more effort throughout the course and eventually post a decent time.

Improvement shown and loads of opportunities to “practice” throughout the year, winner.

I wish I’d have known you could do that at GCSE!

I drew pictures of MTB’s for my Graphic Communication course at A Level, that was an interesting time for bike shapes back in the mid 90’s.

are snooker and darts allowed then?

People did golf when I did it. I don’t know the details. Rules have changed anyway since then.

You have to show proficiency at everything – just being a big bloke on a rugby team wouldn’t score you well, and despite being the school’s and club age group opening bowler was told not to do cricket as my woeful batting would leave me with a 6 out of 10 at best.