Assessing the Physical Education Curriculum
As a practical subject, just as teaching and learning take place in the practical domain, so too should assessment. The expectation is that assessment of students’ learning and progression within this PE and Health curriculum will predominantly be undertaken in a practical setting.
The national Physical Education Expert Group produced guidance on the purpose and practice of assessment in PE. It highlights the key assessment principles outlined in the publication Assessment Principles (DfE, 2014). The full, seven page guidance and helpful departmental self-reflection tool can be found here.
Contained therein is the following statement which sets the context: ‘Effective assessment in physical education engages, supports and motivates pupils to become competent, confident, creative and reflective movers. It can support and encourage young people to work together in order to excel in physically demanding and competitive activities.’ The guidance continues:
‘Approaches to assessment must be meaningful and embedded throughout a high-quality physical education curriculum; which enables learners to make progress and improve their attainment. Although locally determined and child-centred, physical education must be situated within a whole school approach to assessment and support a child’s development across the whole curriculum.’
Whilst most of the assessment takes place through observation and the constant use of teacher and peer feedback, PE teachers are aware of the need to gather evidence. As the Expert Group guidance suggests:
‘Teachers and schools must be able to evidence and demonstrate the ongoing progress that a child makes through a range of recordable measures. These might include, for example, recording through use of mobile technology, pupil journals, peer written reflections, photographic evidence, practical performance and teacher observations.’
As the Ofsted lead for PE articulated, “it is vital to honour the subject; honour the discipline” and ensure that assessment practices are relevant to the subject and meaningful to the students. The PE and Health curriculum has a series of KPIs for each year group which support with assessment. PE departments are encouraged to undertake assessment activities that will include:
- Formative assessment of pupils as an ongoing part of the teaching and learning process, using observation, and questioning to provide regular feedback which enables students to progress.
- Overlaying the KPIs onto their curriculum maps, so that whilst all KPIs are always open for students to be able to get recognition for success, each unit of work will have KPIs which will be a particular focus.
- Share and use the KPIs (or adaptations thereof in student-friendly language) when discussing progress with students and parents/carers so that assessment is meaningful and specific.
- Using a range of evidence to determine whether students in Years 7 to 9 have achieved the nine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across at least one team and one individual activity.
- Moderate across the department (using the exemplars on The United Hub if helpful) so that standards and judgements can be consistent and secure across all teachers.
- Remember that the assessment is of a child’s achievement in Physical Education as opposed to sport.