A recent petition for the reinstatement of Olympic sports including judo, taekwondo and fencing as part of the Physical Education (PE) curriculum at GCSE and A-Level has already gained over 3000 votes with 10,000 needed to get a response from the Government. The list of activities/sports that will be assessed from 2016 at GCSEs can found here while the GCE, AS and A-Levels activities/sports can be found here.

The Department of Education documents both state that “The inclusion or non-inclusion of an activity in the proposed list does not represent a view on the legitimacy or value of the activity.” Inclusion on the list was based on a set of considerations outlined in the documents linked above, namely:

• The range and demand of skills and techniques in the activity

• The application of tactics/strategies/composition in the activity

• The ability to develop skills over a significant period of time

• Suitable conditions in which to perform

• The level of performance can be realistically assessed by PE practitioners (teachers/ moderators)

In response the petition, started by Paul Sibert, states: “We should be encouraging young people to participate in Olympic sports and schools to facilitate this. Removing them from the approved list will discourage schools from promoting and funding them.

“Talented athletes on World Class Programmes won’t be able to use their main sport as part of their study. This will disadvantage them both academically and in a sporting sense.”

The petition runs for six months with a deadline of 21 April 2016. If you’d like to find out more or would like to sign the petition follow the link below: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/110802