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.
Skills that use Identity, image and reputation
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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.
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.