Skills for Life: Exercise For All
Exercise for All is a set of 5 Open Awards Skills for Life units, Entry 1 to Level 2, each 20 guided learning hours and 2 credits, for 14 to 16 year olds in Wales. Learners find out how exercise helps physical and mental wellbeing and take part in indoor and outdoor activities alone and in teams, from supported games at Entry 1 to evaluating their own progress and a team's performance at Level 2. The provider designs and marks the tasks, the learner builds a portfolio and Open Awards quality assures it. Digital is a named cross-curricular skill but digital demand is low: the links are researching and presenting at Level 1 and Level 2, optional recording and tracking of performance, and an e-portfolio.
- Awarding body
- Open Awards
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level 1 (CBM066), Entry Level 2 (CBM067) and Entry Level 3 (CBM068): Each Entry level is a separate 2 credit, 20 guided learning hour unit with 4 learning outcomes: physical benefits of exercise, emotional or mental benefits, following instructions in indoor and outdoor activity, and taking part independently and with others. Entry 1 learners identify 1 benefit and take part with support, Entry 2 learners give examples and complete a task alone and a shared task, and Entry 3 learners outline at least 3 benefits, link activities to outcomes, follow instructions safely in unfamiliar activities and show teamwork. The provider designs the tasks (picture selection, matching, card sorts, questioning, supported demonstrations), the learner builds a portfolio, and every criterion must be met for a Pass.
- Level 1 (CBM069) and Level 2 (CBM070): Each level is a separate 2 credit, 20 guided learning hour unit with 4 learning outcomes. Level 1 learners explain and describe how exercise affects physical and mental wellbeing, and are observed at least twice in each of 2 indoor and 2 outdoor activities and at least 3 times for personal safety and for teamwork. Level 2 learners describe the effects of type and intensity of exercise, explain long-term benefits, take part safely and independently, evaluate their own progress, and evaluate their own contribution after at least 3 group activities and a team's performance. Suggested tasks include research, presenting, a written document, observed demonstration, evaluation and an optional professional discussion.
The digital skills in this qualification
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Researching and presenting how exercise affects health
Level 1 and Level 2 assessment includes researching how exercise affects physical and mental wellbeing, presenting the findings and creating a document that explains or analyses the effects, and providers supply digital or printed information sources at higher levels. Learners find reliable health information, choose what is relevant and produce a clear document or presentation for an audience. These are the suggested assessment tasks for the explaining and describing criteria, so this is assessed.
DCF: Sourcing, searching and planning digital content, Creating digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils find 2 facts about how exercise helps the heart from an NHS web page and write each with the page title as the source.
- Year 8
- Pupils make a 4 slide presentation on how a chosen sport helps mood, with an image and a source on each slide.
- Year 9
- Pupils compare 3 websites about how much exercise teenagers need, judge which is most reliable and use it in a short report.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Assessment Approach, Level 1 and Level 2, page 11; Physical Resources, Information Resources (Higher Levels), page 7
“Creating a document that explains how exercise affects emotional health and wellbeing”
Progression step 3
I can begin to reference sources used in my work, and consider if content is reliable.
I can use a range of software to select, produce and edit a range of multimedia components for a purpose, such as:
- text and images, e.g. format text (bold, underline, italics, highlight); insert and edit text boxes; columns; use refine tools (spellchecker, find and replace); word wrap; crop; alter size and shape; alter images; add effects; trim and split sound and video clips; transitions; onion skin
- presentation, e.g. page orientation; animations; transitions; remove and alter images; use background; use action buttons to create hyperlink; embed objects.
Progression step 4
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
I can select and use a variety of appropriate software, tools and techniques to create, modify and combine multimedia components for a range of audiences and purposes, such as:
- text and images, e.g. explore and use effectively image manipulation techniques; explore and use appropriately the many aspects of document layout; use animation, video and audio effects such as echo, tempo, envelope, layering, frame rate, key frames
- presentation, e.g. use design tools; adapt themes and colours to suit the purpose; create master templates.
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Recording and tracking activity and progress
Providers may use audio-visual equipment to record performance and to support feedback, and simple timers or tracking tools for activities. Level 2 learners evaluate their personal progress against their starting point and can evaluate a team's performance using a recording of a sports team. Timing, logging and filming activity gives evidence for these evaluations, and filming peers needs their agreement. The digital tools are optional resources, so this is taught, not assessed.
DCF: Data and information literacy, Identity, image and reputation
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils use a stopwatch app to time 3 attempts at a shuttle run and enter the times in a table.
- Year 8
- Pupils record their skipping counts over 4 weeks in a spreadsheet and make a line chart to show progress.
- Year 9
- Pupils watch a short clip of a team game, note strengths and areas to improve, and discuss why they would ask permission before filming classmates.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Physical Resources, Optional Resources, page 7; Level 2, AC 3.2 and 4.2, pages 25 and 26
“Simple timers or tracking tools for activities”
Progression step 3
I can construct, refine and interrogate data sets within tables, charts, spreadsheets and databases to test or support an investigation.
I can think critically about information shared online, e.g. the impact of sharing images and videos, metadata of images and videos.
Progression step 4
I can perform analysis on simple data sets including grouping data as appropriate.
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Keeping exercise evidence in an e-portfolio
At every level learners collect evidence in a portfolio, and Open Awards encourages an e-portfolio wherever possible. Evidence such as photos or clips of activity, observation records, documents and evaluations can be saved, named and uploaded so the assessor can find each criterion. The portfolio is required; a digital one is encouraged rather than compulsory.
DCF: Storing and sharing
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils save a photo of themselves doing a warm-up stretch in a class folder with a clear file name.
- Year 8
- Pupils upload a short reflection on a PE lesson to the school's online learning platform and check the teacher can open it.
- Year 9
- Pupils organise a term of PE evidence into dated folders and share the folder link with their teacher.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Assessment Approach, page 9
“Learners are required to collate evidence in a portfolio of evidence. This can be presented digitally (e.g., through an e-portfolio system) or as paper-based as appropriate to the individual learner.”
Progression step 3
I can manage files and folders locally or online, e.g. move files to a folder.
I can upload files from a local drive to online storage.
Progression step 4
I can use appropriate advanced file management techniques, e.g. version history, restore previous version, tagging, compression.
Good to know
- Each level is its own unit with its own code: "Unit Reference Number: CBM066" at Entry 1 to CBM070 at Level 2, each "Credit Value: Two (2)" and "Guided Learning Hours: 20" (Unit Content, pages 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24).
- Only one level can count in a qualification: "units with the same title at different levels are barred for completion within the same qualification" (Level 1 Qualification Guide, Qualification Units, page 17).
- The provider writes the assessment: "This suite of units has been designed to be assessed through assessment tasks and activities designed by the provider", with pre-course verification, internal quality assurance and external quality assurance by Open Awards (Assessment Approach, page 9).
- There is no partial credit: "All assessment criteria must be met in full for the learner to be awarded a 'pass'" (Assessment Approach, page 9).
- Evidence goes in a portfolio, paper or digital: "Wherever possible, e-portfolios are encouraged." (Assessment Approach, page 9).
- Level 1 practical criteria need repeated observation: "Learners must be observed on at least two occasions for each activity" (AC 3.1 and 3.2) and "on at least three occasions" (AC 4.1 and 4.2) (Level 1, pages 22 and 23).
- Space, equipment and safety: providers need "safe indoor and outdoor spaces suitable for physical activity" and low-cost equipment such as balls, cones and mats, and "Risk assessments must be in place" for indoor and outdoor activities and equipment (Physical Resources and Health and Safety, pages 6 to 8).
- Digital tools are optional: "Audio-visual equipment for: recording performance" and "Simple timers or tracking tools for activities" are listed under Optional Resources, and higher levels need "Access to basic information sources (digital or printed)" (Physical Resources, page 7).
- The unit specification does not mention AI tools; the Open Awards Provider Handbook, which must be read alongside it, sets wider rules.
- The text has slips: the Level 2 criteria jump from AC 4.1 to "4.3 Evaluate team performance" while the content calls it AC 4.2 (Level 2, pages 25 and 26), Entry 3 AC 2.1 has a stray "1" printed before "wellbeing" (page 18), and "feeling clam" (pages 13 and 16) and "earners must demonstrate" (Entry 2, page 16) are typing errors. Many unit texts also carry a stray first line, "Faith and Belief in the Community", from a template.
Links with other qualifications
Exercise for All sits well beside GCSE Physical Education, the VCSE and Foundation in Sport and Leisure, and GCSE Health and Social Care, and Childcare, and pairs naturally with the Open Awards Mental Health and Wellbeing, Teamwork and Basic First Aid units. Its digital work is light compared with GCSE Digital Technology, although tracking activity data links to spreadsheet work there. Compared with the Pearson Exercise for all unit, which centres on planning and recording an exercise schedule, the Open Awards version puts more weight on taking part safely in indoor and outdoor activities and, at Level 2, on evaluating team performance, possibly from a recording of a sports team.
Source: Open Awards Skills for Life Unit Specification, Exercise for All, Entry Level 1 to Level 2.