The difficulty in transferring curriculum policy to programmes of meaningful student learning supported by purposeful assessment has proved a significant challenge for many new initiatives in Physical Education (PE) Rink and Mitchell (2002). Various authors have commented upon general factors which influence change in curriculum, such as initial teacher education programmes (Hardy, 1996), teachers' requirement for control within lessons (Curtner Smith, 1999) the construction and efficacy of teachers' pedagogy content knowledge and capacity for critical reflection (Rossi, 1996). More specifically, Thorburn and Collins (2003) noted from initial research in 2000-2001 of Higher Still Physical Education (HSPE), a high-stakes school examination in Scotland that teachers had responded in three different ways to the multiple teaching, learning and assessment challenges posed. There were many schools where the short-term assessment pressures were determining the methodology and the quality of student learning experience. There was evidence of an increasingly dichotomous theory/practical split and while teacher's beliefs were favourably disposed towards HSPE, for various pedagogical reasons they could not bring about high levels of authentic attainment. Secondly, there were some schools were rote learned prescriptive assessment answers had been developed. In these schools teachers had professionally defined their teaching and assessment practice for HSPE with a particularly narrow focus. Thirdly, there were some schools which where characterised by a high level of expertise for performance-led teaching environments, where feedback was effectively built into teaching and learning and where students were highly motivated and engaged with learning tasks. Crucially, students in these two schools completed the assessment answers in the divergent open manner expected. Further research during school session 2002-2003 longitudinally tracked teacher's curriculum decision making in conjunction with the monitoring and evaluation of students learning experiences and analysis of assessment outcomes throughout an entire HSPE course. Additionally, the commitment shown to an internally integrated curriculum in the development of Senior Level Physical Education (SLPE) in Queensland, Australia, the broad equivalent of A-Level in England and Wales and HSPE in Scotland was noted, especially since as Penney and Kirk (1998a) acknowledge that 'the development of a new (SLPE) syllabus has been neither imposed, nor rushed, and has appeared to recognise that involvement 'ownership' and time are critical for achieving anything more than 'surface level' or tokenistic change in education.'In Scotland, to date, evidence from both research phases indicates there is no compelling evidence that the HSPE rationale can lead to high levels of authentic attainment on a year-on-year basis. At present it is left to the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the examination awarding body for Scotland, to derive complex arithmetically driven solutions to resolve students pass rates from such skewed assessment evidence Thorburn (2004). Evidence from SLPE appears more positive with greater prominence towards teachers' continuous professional development, attention to students' language skills and the phased introduction of awards. Crucially, what appears missing is field evidence about students' learning and assessment experience. Until this is ascertained it is not possible to comment on the extent to which SLPE is effective. This requires to be longitudinally tracked, as it has been with HSPE in Scotland, to ascertain whether results at school level, and later within tertiary education, yield more beneficial and encouraging results. Evidence from Thorburn and Collins (2003) has highlighted that there is urgent need to consider the fundamental conceptual challenges of integration and assessment in a way that is informed by research and which is driven by a 'clearly articulated view of learning' (Kirk and O'Flaherty, 2003 pp.16). With the recent growth and importance attached to high-stakes examinations this is nothing less than is required.