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GCSE PE skiing (AQA) assessment

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Has anyone done an assessment at the Snow Centre (Hemel Hempstead) or Snow Zone (Milton Keynes) and scored a good mark?

Did you supplement with evidence filmed in a resort? We’re going to Les Menuires in February half term.

My child is a pretty decent skier - comfortable on many black runs, will certainly take on bigger jumps than me! Stopped ESF at bronze (ski school revolt) but has done dry ski slope lessons at Hillend in Edinburgh to their top level. Not a racer or anything like that.

I don’t know if that’s good enough to achieve a 9. Or whether you can evidence a 9 in an indoor snow centre.

Any advice gratefully received!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
In error


Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Thu 14-11-24 10:52; edited 1 time in total
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
My eldest daughter did skiing as one of her GCSE sports in Avoriaz in February half term 2 years ago. We booked a ski school we know well for some private lessons and they did all the filming. We sent them through the spec beforehand and they sorted it all out. She got 19/20 for it, so obviously did well, but I'm not sure how much she could have covered what she did in a dome. That's not to say you can't, I just don't have any experience of it sorry.
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I'm in the same situation with my eldest at the moment. HH do two options - one is just assisting with the filming process and providing the slalom gear for the gates test, one where they'll offer some tuition to guide Jnr through the process.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
We went through this last year. You have to film three different sports and having a snow based one originally sounded like a good idea but in the end was a total ball ache.

You will need to book early if you decide use one of the Snowdomes.

Our son just ended up being filmed at school playing football, tennis and badminton. So the couple of hundred on videos at the dome was a total waste of cash.

From what I understand 99% of the videos submitted aren't even watched. The exam board select a couple at random from cohort.
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My wife teaches GCSE and has done for years. Takes a trip each year and does loads of filming, making sure that certain sessions are set aside to show the different skills needed. If a pupil is going skiing but not with the school (ie. Family trip), she meets with parents/pupil at a convenient time to write down what skills needed to be filmed so they can be transferred afterwards to her. It works really well.

Last year, quite a few of her skiing ones were moderated, as were the year before and previous years before that; however no cricket ones were looked at last year. It depends what sport the exam board has a focus on each year as to whether that sport is selected. Individual sports are more frequently assessed through video where as team sports rarely are.
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When my son did his GCSE we filmed it ourselves in resort over xmas. Basically me with a selfie stick following him around and it was really good fun reviewing it in the evenings and checking what we had or didn't have. The only thing we didn't get enough was slalom racing so we managed to do that at Chill Factore in Manchester later where again I just filmed him whilst being out there together.

Never actually saw the finished submission as he edited it all together himself and got 20/20.
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There is a current thread about A-level PE qualifications for Skiing as a sport. It would be well worth you reading it.

The basic conclusion is to get an A-level of a decent grade. You need to be at nearly national team level.

Something that seems to sound like an easy option for an half decent skier, in reality looks like something very hard to achieve good results at.
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@rickboden, this is about GCSE skiing though, so not quite as difficult to sort.
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@rickboden, and you don’t need to be near national level. You do need to have good race experience and take part in a proper race. My son did a couple of the Eola races at Chill Factore for his A level. He’s not FIS registered, but has got years of racing experience.
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rachelharrisonsmith wrote:
@rickboden, and you don’t need to be near national level. You do need to have good race experience and take part in a proper race. My son did a couple of the Eola races at Chill Factore for his A level. He’s not FIS registered, but has got years of racing experience.



I do understand that this is GCSE just thought the information might be useful.

I think the A level thread would benefit from some more information if you have the time.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Thanks all for the replies.
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@Dougie, - do you know which board your wife teaches? We are doing AQA. If the same, I wonder if she has a list of the skills to film that she might be willing to share? Our PE Dept doesn’t seem to have anything like this.

Thanks so much
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You know it makes sense.
@Dougie, - do you know which board your wife teaches? We are doing AQA. If the same, I wonder if she has a list of the skills to film that she might be willing to share? Our PE Dept doesn’t seem to have anything like this.

Thanks so much
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Skills needed are on page 164 of the AQA PE document

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/pe/specifications/AQA-8582-SP-2016.PDF
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I take a school ski trip away every year and on a day when the weather is good, take them off with one of the instructors and a PE member of staff who does the filming.
I agree that it is a ball-ache, but we usually get reasonable results from it.

I also agree that children need to be very good to get a good grade if they progress to A' level. Only ever had one student get top marks and she, coincidentally was at the time the youngest ever BASI 1 and 2 instructor (Passing both on the respective birthday).
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@andmelffion, thanks, have looked at this but find it quite confusing.

Anyone able to explain what making “successful and effective tactical and strategic decisions, almost always fully relevant to an appropriate line being chosen” means. (To get a top score for part 2 which has to be a timed run around poles/cones)

I don’t find the descriptions very helpful in thinking what I would actually video. Is it just a case of skiing down increasingly difficult (steep/icy/etc) runs showing you can turn/traverse/stop. And then the timed runs at as fast a pace as you can do?

Anyone any idea if it’s better to try something really difficult which you can’t do faultlessly or to stick in your comfort zone where you are not making any mistakes?

Only likely to have one skiing holiday per year so don’t want to fail to record the critical footage!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@Tootsiejules, we did it in an hour or so one morning whilst in Austria. We pretty much used the same piste for all the different skills. We then skied about a bit until we found some moguls to film on. Jnr had just finished a training camp so we had a day skiing together the following day. For the slalom, we put some of his training videos from that trip and a race he did in Hemel.

If you’re doing it throughout a holiday, maybe pick a couple of runs to film on every day and then just enjoy the rest of the day not worrying about it (unless they feel in the zone to film a bit more at some point). At the end of the week, choose the best footage of each skill.
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@Tootsiejules, Sorry for delayed reply. Wife was out when I read response and then forgot by the time she came home!

She uses the Edexcel scheme but assures me the skills are almost identical on the choice of individual skills. I have the AQA doc here and am trying to attach it as 3 photos….trying…
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Would any ski school be able to do the filming for the skiing part of a GCSE PE. Thinking it might be easier to just book my lad a private lesson or two to get it all sorted..
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Following this thread with interest. Son is Y9 so lots of GCSE options chat at the moment. He's most definitely doing PE and will be doing football and rugby. His PE teacher is on-board with the idea of skiing as his third.
I like the idea of paying a private instructor to get it done over a morning or two on our trip.
We would usually go to Les Arcs, but are open to change if there's a particular recommendation.

Thanks.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
My son (yr 10) chose GCSE PE (OCR) and I hope this was the right decision.. he broke his collarbone badly and had to have an operation in Dec with 12 weeks recovery before any high risk/ contact sport. He missed 3 weeks skiing in Dec... So, now I am worried how/ when he can train and record considering the seasonality of this sport. What do people do for competitive sports? Can this be done in the UK somewhere at all?
Considering taking him skiing indoors in the UK, so he can practise the technique. However, this will be rather flat.
He is also doing downhill biking (this is where he broke his collarbone).
Sometimes I wish we did not agree to this choice Sad
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
My son's school allowed everyone to change the sports chosen at the last minute. They also put on several matches at school to make sure everyone had the chance to submit a video. We panicked a little but it was a non-event as he ended up just playing Tennis, Badminton and Football at school.

Though as mentioned all the Snowdomes have events on especially for GCSE videos.

Most of the videos go unwatched too...
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Sideways_jnr (who I should probably stop calling that as he is now taller than me :/) wants to clear this when we go to Val Thorens in April. My plan is to get a day or 2 half days with a 1-2-1 to brush up his skills which are probably a bit rusty then film... Any suggestions on who to get in contact with in VT?
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