“Run the Blue” Assessment
The “Run the Blue” assessment at St Peters RC High School forms the assessment undertaken by PE throughout the year for our students. Students are asked to run four laps of our astro turf, which equates to roughly 1.2km. Whilst ranking students based on their skill within a sport may give a more accurate representation of their strengths, the Run the Blue assessment allows us to track the health of our students, which is a requirement of the Department of Education. Outside of all of the success we have in various sports, ensuring that our students leave us empowered to make healthy lifestyle choices is an important role of the Physical Education teacher.
On completing four laps, students will be categorised into four sections. These are:
- Outstanding
- Healthy and Active
- Developing
- Serious Concern
We understand this assessment may be challenging to some of our students, so we wish to make it very clear that students are given dedicated time within their PE lessons to improve these scores.
An outstanding score is typically assigned to students who have the highest levels of attendance and a commitment to run at high intensities for anywhere between 2-4 minutes. It is very rare that students are able to achieve these scores without dedicated, hard-work; so, an “outstanding” score seems most appropriate.
A healthy and active score is typically achieved by students who are consistently working hard in their PE lessons. These scores reflect a student who are, as the name states, “healthy and active” compared to their peers. Students who perform here are statistically more likely to achieve higher academic outcomes (HERE).
If students receive a “developing” assessment point, they are just short of reaching the “healthy and active” criteria. These students are in a fantastic position, as we are on our way to making better lifestyle choices. The benefits of moving out of this criterion are improved confidence, ease of day-to-day activities and the ability to access new content within PE lessons.
Finally, a “serious concern” criteria places students into a category of concern. As PE teachers, we have discussed this category in great detail and wish to express that we are very committed to getting our students out of this category. It is important that we avoid labelling students, but equally believe that transparency remains an important part of our role. The reason we believe this is an appropriate name is because the time allocated to this time can be achieved with a brisk walk. In addition, it is important to note that over decades of teaching, this category now must exist to reflect low levels of cardiorespiratory health. We remain firm in our expectation that irrespective of individual challenge, every student aged between 11-18 should be able to complete this assessment in an Outstanding to Developing category.
Accompanying your assessment grade will be an “attitude to learning” (ATL) score. This figure remains separate of the Run the Blue assessment grade, but reflects effort and behaviour within a lesson and should be used as a reference for how well a student is engaging with our content.
