GCSE Physical Education and Health
The Unit 1 examination asks for short and extended written answers using precise physiological vocabulary, and the coaching and analysis parts of Unit 2 depend on clear spoken explanation. Numeracy runs through the course: heart rates and training zones, energy balance, fitness test measurements, comparison with normative data and tracking progress over 8 to 10 weeks. The biggest thing Key Stage 3 can build is the habit of measuring, recording and graphing fitness data, then writing or saying what the numbers show.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Level 1 and Level 2
- First taught
- September 2026
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- High
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: Principles of Physical Education and Health: Digital examination 1 hour 30 minutes, 40%
- Unit 2: Performance and Personal Training: Practical non-examination assessment (Performance 1, Performance 2 or Coaching, and an 8 to 10 week Personal Training activity), 60%
Skills that use Communicating with symbols
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Energy balance and nutrition
Learners must understand energy balance and the dietary and hydration needs of different sports, which involves comparing energy taken in with energy used.
Numeracy: Calculation, Communicating with symbols, Strategic competence
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils add up the kilocalories in a sample sports day packed lunch from food labels.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare the kilocalories in a sports drink with the energy used in 30 minutes of cycling and say whether the athlete is in energy surplus or deficit.
- Year 9
- Pupils plan a day's meals for an endurance athlete and calculate the percentage of energy from carbohydrate using nutrition labels.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 1, Section 1.2.1, page 13
“energy balance.”
Progression step 3
I can add and subtract numbers using whole numbers and decimals.
I can use appropriate notation, symbols and units of measurement.
Progression step 4
I can use efficient written methods to add and subtract numbers and decimals of any size, including a mixture of large and small numbers with differing numbers of decimal places.
I can use appropriate notation, symbols and units of measurement, including compound measures.
Progression step 5
I can recognise, model and apply the underlying mathematical structures and ideas within problems, in order to formulate and solve them.
I can use appropriate notation, symbols and units of measurement, including compound measures.
Good to know
- Unit 1 is taken on screen, so extended answers are typed, not handwritten: "Digital examination: 1 hour 30 minutes" (page 10).
- The specification states no marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar and does not say whether a calculator may be used in the Unit 1 examination; these details are left to the Assessment Pack: "The Assessment Pack will include all detailed information relating to assessment." (page 23).
- Analysis and evaluation carry real weight: AO3, "Analyse and evaluate performance in sports and physical activities, and the factors that affect them.", is 20% of the qualification (page 23).
- The personal training task is a long data project: "Plan, implement and evaluate a personal training activity (of self) over 8-10 weeks" (page 17).
- Each Unit 2 part is marked out of 40: "Each part will be marked out of a total of 40 marks." (page 24).
Links with other qualifications
Heart rate, fitness testing and graphing work overlaps with physiological measurements in Health and Social Care, and Childcare and with statistics in Mathematics and Numeracy, so a shared recording sheet across Years 7 to 9 would help all three.
Source: WJEC GCSE Physical Education and Health specification, Version 2, December 2025, teaching from 2026, for award from 2028.