Physical Education
National 4/National 5
Course Overview
Within the Physical Education course the pupils will work to improve their performance in selected activities whilst developing their knowledge and understanding of the physical, mental, social and emotional factors that influence their performance within the activities.
Physical Education at National 4 comprises two unit assessments and a Course Assessment. The two units are:
1. Performance Skills – candidates have to attain the performance criteria in two activities. The two activities selected are at the discretion of the school after discussion with the pupils.
2. Factors Impacting on Performance – candidates will develop knowledge and understanding of the factors which can impact on performance and how performance can be developed. This focuses on the; physical, social, emotional and mental aspects of performance. Included in these topics are fitness, physiology, skill development, tactical awareness, preparation for performance and evaluating performance.
The National 5 Physical Education course comprises the same 2 elements Performance Skills and Factors Impacting Performance but there are no unit assessments. The National 5 course assessment is detailed below.
Faculty Principal Teacher
Mr I Stanger
Assessment Methods
Unit Assessment (National 4 Only)
The performance unit will be assessed through personal performance in 2 activities. The Factors Impacting performance unit will be assessed through completion of a project to improve personal performance and writing this up.
Course Assessment at both National 4 and National 5 will be assessed as follows:
National 4 – Candidates will be assessed in a whole performance situation.
Candidates will be assessed on their ability to Prepare for a performance, Perform and Evaluate the performance and this will be on a pass/fail basis.
National 5 – Course assessment comprises of a Performance and a Portfolio.
For the Performance, candidates will be assessed in a whole performance situation in 2 different activities. Candidates will be assessed on their ability in each activity out of 30 marks giving an overall total out of 60 marks.
For the Portfolio candidates will complete and write up an investigation to develop their own performance, reflecting on and justifying the decisions they made. This is sent to the SQA for marking and is graded out of 60 marks.
Learning and Teaching Approaches
At Aberdeen Grammar we run a combined National 4/5 PE course and allow pupils to demonstrate their ability by differentiated response to common tasks and activities. Ultimately the final level that a pupil is presented for will be determined by the quality and standard of the work they produce in both the practical and written elements of the course.
The course will be delivered through both practical and classroom based theory lessons. Pupils will be expected to work independently to complete an analysis of their performance and write up the results. Regular homework tasks are a key component of the delivery of learning. Many elements of the written work are delivered and assessed online through google classroom.