The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has published new guidance outlining the steps schools and colleges can take to help make PE qualifications more accessible to students with physical disabilities.

The move has come in response to feedback from teachers asking for more to be done to enable disabled learners to study national qualifications in PE.

The list of activities young people can be assessed in as part of their PE qualifications at National 3 through to Advanced Higher level has now been updated and expanded.

Various sports to contribute to final grade

In 2024-25, learners can have their performance assessed in Paralympic sports such as boccia and goalball, as well as other wheelchair, powerchair and parasports activities, which can then contribute towards their final grade.

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The SQA guidance - put together jointly with Scottish Disability Sport - confirms that boccia can be used by candidates with profound physical disabilities, while those with severe visual impairment can be assessed playing goalball.

Boccia is a Paralympic sport that involves throwing, kicking, or rolling a ball towards a target ball on a court. Boccia is designed to test muscle control and accuracy and is ideal for wheelchair users who play while seated.

Goalball is a team sport developed for blind or visually impaired players, in which a ball containing bells makes a sound when thrown at a goal at the opposing team’s end of the court.

Layla McCloskey (pictured), a student at Barrhead High in East Renfrewshire, is undertaking boccia as part of her National 5 PE course. She said she was “so pleased” to be continuing with PE, and that she was “looking forward to having my performance assessed and showing what I can do”.

Qualifications must fuel ‘PE journey’

Mags Paterson, head of creative, hospitality and sport at SQA, said teachers now had the information they needed to assess their students’ performance and make sure they were reaching an appropriate standard.

She added it was important that, with the ongoing Paralympics in Paris inspiring young people to take up sport, qualifications allowed them to “continue their PE journey” and “receive qualifications that recognise their abilities and achievements”.

More information on SQA’s national PE qualifications is available on its website.

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