Physical Education
Head of Department: Mr C.J. Olver
The Oundle School Physical Education Department boasts some of the best school sporting facilities in the country, which include: two large sports halls with four indoor cricket nets, a full size basketball court, an indoor climbing wall, six squash courts, four fives courts, a 45 m indoor swimming pool and a superb health and fitness suite housing a variety of up-to-date cardio-vascular machines as well as a free weight training area.
PE is taught as part of the core curriculum int Forms 1 to 3, where the pupils follow a programme of health and fitness, including learning about their bodies in relation to sport, exploring many hand/eye co-ordination activities, in addition to swimming, athletics, squash and badminton.
The department is staffed by:
Miss G. Evans FISTC (Swimming)
Mrs S Franklin
Miss K.E. Fraser BA (Head of Girls' Games)
Miss R.S. Goatly BA
Mr J R Husbands BA
Mrs M.L. Layden MA CertEd JP
Mr G.J.P.A. Maitre BSc MSc
Mr C.J. Olver WLIHE (Head of Rugby)
Mr. E. Oxlade (Rowing)
Mr G. Terret BA (Hockey)
On reaching the Fourth Form pupils can choose to follow a GCSE course in Sports Science that has proved to be very popular. The GCSE examination consists of a terminal exam covering the human body and exercise, skill acquisition, sports psychology and sport and the media. The pupils choose four practical sports where they are assessed in skill and proficiency in each of these sports. For the coursework unit, the pupils design and perform their own fitness and training programme for their sport and make detailed research into health and nutrition, methods of training and acquiring new skills for their chosen sport.
At AS, the OCR specification is taught.
The Physical Education programme at Oundle School runs concurrently with the games programme that all pupils follow, both complementing each other, and enabling Sports Science pupils to have a much greater in-depth knowledge of their sports.
There is a great deal of expertise in the department. Mrs Layden represented Wales at cross-country, Miss Goatly is a tri-athlete specialist. Mr Terrett represented Wales in hockey and Mr Olver, (Head of Department) is a former England rugby international.