Higher Physical Education

Following recommendations from our colleagues at Scottish Disability Sport, we’ve updated the list of acceptable activities in the National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher performance coursework assessment tasks. The list now includes boccia and goalball.

We've also updated the coursework assessment tasks to clarify the following:

• Para versions of each activity on the list are also acceptable.
• Wheelchair and/or powerchair activities can only be chosen by learners with physical disabilities who use a wheelchair and/or powerchair to take part in sport and physical activity.
• Goalball can only be chosen by learners with a severe visual impairment.
• Boccia can only be chosen by learners with profound physical disabilities.

The ‘Suggested learning and teaching approaches’ section of the updated National 5 and Higher course specifications contains an example of the use of a para version of an activity.

In the updated National 5 course specification, we’ve included an example of a Paralympian as a model performer, and in the Higher course specification we’ve included a link to the British Paralympic Association as a resource for learning in Appendix 4.

These updates will help make our Physical Education courses more accessible to all learners. We hope it will encourage more disabled learners to study Physical Education as part of their National Qualifications.

The updated documents are valid from session 2024-25.

View our news article – update on National Courses for session 2024-25 onwards (13 March 2024).

We’re hosting webinars for teachers and lecturers of Physical Education courses, on the following dates.

• Monday 25 November (16:00 – 17:00) – Advanced Higher Physical Education project
• Tuesday 3 December (16:00 – 17:00) – Higher Physical Education

These webinars will focus on the standards required for assessment. You’ll also have opportunities to ask questions.

To book a place, please use our online booking system at athena.sqameet.net. You’ll need a username and password to access the booking system.