Frequently Asked Questions.....

Why should I use PE Award in my school?

PE Award delivers the following benefits;

• ‘Greater sports participation in school is associated with higher levels of wellbeing.’ Activity alliance 2023.
• It provides a physical certificate of competence in PE for learners to use in the future.
• Exercise boosts academic success, as reported by the youth sport trust. Youth sport trust, 2022.
• It will lead to setting a national standard for KS4 sporting competence.
• It validates the capital culture provided to learners through PE by assessing their wider knowledge and soft skills such as communication, motivation, leadership and confidence.
• It will motivate learners to remain engaged in core PE rather than opt out and revise for core subject.
• It encourages positive social behaviour and provids opportunities for the development of healthy and supportive peer friendships. Youth sport, 2022.
• It encourages school and curriculum leaders to adhere to the AfPE guidlines of 2 hours of timetabled PE per week. This was supported by the government in march 2023 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/school-sports-given-huge-boost-to-level-the-playing-field-for-next-generation-of-lionesses, GOV.UK, March 2023.)
• PE Award is a bespoke PE assessment tool and will negate the requirment to confrom to whole school assessment policies. As outlined in the leveling the playing field ofsted report  "In some schools, school-wide decisions around assessment had a negative impact on PE. The whole-school-assessment approach did not provide the flexibility required for teachers to check whether pupils were developing competence in PE as they progressed through the curriculum". Levelling the playing field: the physical education subject report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

How do you register?

• Complete the registration form on the website with learner information and email this to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. At this point your mark book will be set up and sent to the school along with the invoice.

How much will it cost?

• The costs are charged at £15 per learner, however there is an option to reduce this to £12 per learner if the school signs up for 4 years. The total price for your school for the cohort being registered is easy to calculated on the registration document. Please see the pricings page of the website for more information. Pricing.

Can anyone talk me through the course?

• We would be happy to explain the course in more detail to you. Once you have read the information on the website and the specification, if you still are unsure how the award works please email use either through the contacts page of the website or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How do you submit your grades?

• Grades are submitted via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. These must be on the formatted mark book you were sent after registration containing learner names and their unique learner number. When submitting marks the centre should also submit moderation videos for three learners and a moderation grading form for each of the three sampled learners.

What does moderation look like?

• Each school must send evidence of one assessment. This should consist of three learners, who are clearly identifiable. Ideally one higher, one middle and one lower achieving student for the assessment. This video should be shared via the email link and sent with the final scores mark book to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. In order to make the moderation as smooth as possible centres are also asked to complete the moderation grading form (link to doc on website). This shows the external moderator where the marks have been awarded for each learner. If your school does not have the ability to share protected folders online please email and request a memory stick. The latest that these can be requested is 1^st April for the year of certification. All mark books, moderation paperwork and videos should be sent to PE Award by 31^st May in the year of certification.

When do we receive final grades?

• Final grades will be emailed to centres via the exams officer the week before results day. This is also when you will receive your moderation report. PE Award do not currently use the A2C online portal like larger exam boards such as Edexcel and OCR. The grading and marks breakdown will be shared with the learners and certificates will be sent in the preceding weeks.

How do students get their certificates?

• All awarded certificates will be printed and posted to centres in October and November of the year of certification. It is then the schools responsibility to distribute these to learners with their other GCSE/Btec certificates.

When should we register our school?

• Your school should ideally register in the spring of year 10 for each cohort. This allows the summer sports to be assessed in year 10 and will not negatively impact the exam preparations in year 11. Late registrations will be received up until 20^th Dec of year 11. However, submission after 20^th Sept will incur an additional fee.

Do students need to complete every criteria in the assessment grid?

• No, Performers should be marked on the assessment grid using a best fit approach. Each bullet point should be considered. The learner is awarded marks by their success against each of the descriptors in order to give an accurate overall performance grade for that sport. If they can do 1 or 2 of the criteria they would be at the lower end of that scale. If they can do all of those criteria but none from the box above then they would be at the higher end. All three categories should be assessed at the same time to give an accurate best fit final mark. For more information please see page 8 of the specification.

Why are some sports not included?

• The concept of PE Award is that assessments can take place en-masse in class with many learners being assessed by a competent PE trained professional all at one time. Some sports have been omitted due to either the need for specialist equipment, a specific location or because these sports do not allow for easy assessment of more than one learner at a time.
• An example of this is golf; present in a range of PE GCSE specifications. Golf would require someone knowledgeable about the sport, lots of specialist equipment not provided by the school and would need to be assessed externally on a golf course or driving range. It is also hard to assess more than one learner at a time. Other examples include; squash, gymnastics, canoeing, sailing, diving, windsurfing, equestrian and figure skating. No external video evidence can be used for individual assessment. All assessments should take place in class, at school by a trained PE teacher.

Can we request other sports?

• Yes, although they cannot be added to the current specification for this academic year. We will take on board any sports requested but they should align with the PE Award rational in that, they can be delivered and assessed in a school based setting in class groups that do not require specialist knowledge, location or equipment. Please fill out the contact us form on the website if you have a recommendation.