Physical Education
Why study Physical Education?
Sport touches so much of our lives, from everyday recreational interests, selling commercial products, to our sense of patriotism and national pride. Expertise in teaching combined with excellent facilities allows students at Bradford Girls' Grammar School to be offered a wide range of sports in lessons. In the first three years of senior school, girls are taught athletics, badminton, dance, gymnastics, hockey, netball, rounders, swimming and tennis. In the Lower and Upper 5, aerobics, basketball, fitness training, table tennis and volleyball are added to the programme and girls have an element of choice in designing their own PE course.
Over the years the department has secured a reputation for excellence with teams competing in district, county and regional competitions as well as national finals in a number of sports. Individuals are actively encouraged to enter appropriate trials for their level of performance, and are fully supported by the PE staff as they progress up the performance ladder. The school also works in partnership with local clubs to provide facilities for training and further participation opportunities for our students, and the BGGS site is now the home base for a number of junior clubs.
Which specification is followed?
The department is committed to the provision of Physical Education at A and AS Level (OCR specification) and at GCSE (Edexcel Short Course). The high performance levels achieved throughout the whole PE programme ensure that students obtain the highest of grades on all courses.
Workshops, conferences and visits
- A full range of extra-curricular activities is offered in an extensive extra-curricular programme which operates at lunchtimes and after school. Girls are encouraged to take part in sports for recreational purposes as well as training to enhance their own performance and that of school teams. Further expertise is offered in some areas through the employment of specialist coaches.
- School teams have a varied fixture programme playing matches and tournaments after school and at weekends both locally and nationally. The House Sports programme gives further competitive opportunities, and members of Dance Club regularly perform at school functions and in their exceptional annual show.
- Sports tours are regularly arranged to give girls a wider playing and cultural experience and have included visits to South Africa (2003), Sri Lanka (2006) and Canada (2009). Trips are regularly arranged to the theatre for dance productions and to sporting arenas for international matches.
- Many of our pupils have been successful in securing places in talent identification programmes which run in the city and in the county. We currently have girls attending training in athletics, badminton, dance, hockey, netball squash and table tennis. A few girls are also involved in regional development groups for athletics, hockey and netball.
Degree and career choices
Girls taking A Level Physical Education have gone on to study degrees in sports related fields but also medicine, physiotherapy and dentistry where the science based components of the syllabus have proved extremely relevant and useful to them.