Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) develops the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes important for students to take positive action to protect and enhance their own and others' health, safety and wellbeing in varied and changing contexts. Physical education is fundamental to the acquisition of movement skills and concepts to enable students to participate in a range of physical activities - confidently, competently and creatively.
The study of PDHPE provides students with the opportunity to enhance and develop resilience and connectedness and learn to interact respectfully with others. Through PDHPE, students develop the skills to research, apply, appraise and critically analyse health and movement concepts in order to maintain and improve their health, safety, wellbeing and participation in physical activity. Students are provided with opportunities to learn to critique and challenge assumptions, attitudes, behaviours and stereotypes and evaluate a range of health-related sources, services and organisations. They develop a commitment to the qualities and characteristics that promote and develop empathy, resilience, respectful relationships, inclusivity and social justice. Students practice, develop and refine they physical, cognitive, social and emotional skills that are important for engaging in movement and leading a healthy, safe and physically active life.
Learning in PDHPE reflects the dynamic nature of health, safety, wellbeing and participation in physical activity in the context of a diverse and rapidly changing society. It addresses health and physical activity concepts of importance to students and highlights the influences that contextual factors have on personal values, attitudes and behaviours. PDHPE provides students with an experiential curriculum that is contemporary, relevant, challenging and physically active. The syllabus is designed to give all schools flexibility to treat sensitive issues in a manner reflective of their own context and ethos.
Through PDHPE, students develop self-management, interpersonal and movement skills to help them become empowerd, self-confident and socially responsible citizens. Students learn in movement, about movement and through movement and are given opportunities to apply and adapt their skills across multiple contexts. The learning experiences in PDHPE provide students with a foundation to actively contribute to, and advocate for, the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others in the community and beyond school.
PDHPE is compolusory across Years 7-10, with students in Year 7 partcipating in six 1 hour lessons per fortnight, students in Years 8 and 9, four lessons per fornight and Year 10 three lessons per fortnight. These lessons are divided into both theory and practical.
Course Content
The PDHPE K-10 syllabus is organised into three content strands. Opportunities to develop practical application and connecting content across strands will enhance the development of knowledge, understanding and skills across a range of health and physical education concepts.
Health, Wellbeing and Relationships
The strand Health, Wellbeing and Relationships focuses on students developing the knowledge, understanding and skills important for building respectful relationships, enhancing personal strengths and exploring personal identity to promote the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others. Students develop strategies to manange change, challenges, power, abuse, violence and how to protect themselves and others in a range of situations.
Movement Skill and Performance
The strand Movement Skill and Performance focuses on active participation in a broad range of movement contexts to develop movement skill and enhance performance. Students develop confidence and competence to engage in physical activity. They develop an understanding of movement concepts and the features of movement composition as they engage in a variety of planned and improvised movement experiences. Students create and compose movement to achieve specific purposes and performance goals. Through movement experiences students also develop self-management and interpersonal skills to support them to strive for enhanced performance and participation in a lifetime of physical activity.
Health, Safe and Active Lifestyles
The strand Healthy, Safe and Active Lifestyles focuses on the interrelationship between health and physical activity concepts. Students develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to empower them to make healthy and safe choices and take action to promote the health, safety and wellbeing of their communities. They engage with a range of health issues and identify strategies to keep them healthy, safe and active.
Main Concepts
The PDHPE syllabus addresses contemporary health and physical activity concepts important to students. These are embedded in an age and Stage-appropriate manner through the content. These contexts include:
- alcohol
- food and nutrition
- personal identity
- mental health and wellbeing
- relationships
- sexuality and sexual health
- safety
- health benefits of physical activity
- fundamental movement skills
- rhythmic and expressive movement
- individual/group/team physical activities
- aquatics
- lifelong physical activities
Stage 4 (Years 7-8)
By the end of Stage 4, students propose skills and strategies to enhance their health and wellbeing by exploring ways to connect with their communities. They recognise factors that influence changes and transitions and evaluate strategies to manage current and future challenges. Students analyse ways to cultivate resilience and demonstrate help-seeking strategies and behaviours to support themselves and others. They recognise the characteristics of respectful relationships and the importance of belonging and connecting with others. Students investigate health practices, behaviours and resources and propose actions to promote health, safety and wellbeing for themselves and other in relation to a range of health and physical activity issues. They develop critical thinking skills in relation to accessing support and health information. Students recognsie the need to develop habits for positive health and a lifetime of physical activity.
Students demonstrate control and accuracy when performing specialised movement sequences and skills in dynamic physical activity contexts. They transfer and adapt solutions to complex movement challenges by performing specialised movement skills and selecting, applying and combining movement concepts. Students investigate and create plans to achieve movement and fitness outcomes. They participate in a wide variety of moderate to vigorous physical activities to apply, adapt and vary movement skills with increased confidence and precision. Students apply and refine skills to promote safety, collaboration, fair play and inclusivity in physical activity contexts. They examine the cultural significance of physical activities and how connection and inclusion can enhance health, safety, wellbeing and physical activity levels of the wider community.
Stage 5 (Years 9-10)
By the end of Stage 5, students evaluate a broad range of factors that shape identity and have an impact on young people's health decisions, behaviours and actions. They plan and evaluate strategies and interventions and advocate for their own and others' health, safety and wellbeing. Students investigate the impact of changes and transitions on relationships. They assess their capacity to consider and respond postively to challenges and how they can contribute to caring, inclusive and respectful relationships. Students reflect on emotional responses in a variety of situations and demonstrate protective skills to promote health, safety and wellbeing and manage complex situations. They design and implement actions to enhance and support their own and others' fitness levels and participation in a lifetime of physical activity.
Students use movement to satisfy personal needs and interests. They participate in movement experiences with persistence as they compose, perform and appraise movement in various contexts. Studens refine and apply movement skills and movement concepts to compose and perform innovative sequences. In response to unpredictable situations they work alone and collaboratively to design and apply creative solutions to movement challenges. Students apply and transfer movement concepts, skills, strategies and tactics to new and challenging situations. They use criteria to make judgements about and refine their own and others' specialised movement skills and performances. Students describe the impact of biomechanical factors on skill development and performance.
Students demonstrate leadership, fair play and cooperation across a range of movement contexts. They adopt a variety of roles such as a leader, mentor, official, coach and team member to support and encourage the involvement of others.
Assessment
Assessment of student progress and achievement in 7-10 PDHPE comprises formative and summative assessment tasks and activities. These tasks are spread across both theory and practical units of work. Students will be assessed on the key content and skills outlined above.
Senior Courses
Students have the opportunity to study PDHPE and/or Sport, Lifestyle & Recreation in Years 11-12.
PDHPE (2 Unit; counts towards ATAR)
Overview of Course
The Preliminary (Year 11) course consists of two core modules representing 60% of course time. An options component representing 40% of course time includes four options of which students are to study two.
The HSC (Year 12) course consists of two core modules representing 60% of course time. An options component representing 40% of course time includes five options of which students are to study two.
Preliminary Course (Year 11)
| Preliminary Course (Year 11) | HSC Course (Year 12) |
| Core Strands (60% total) | Core Strands (60% total) |
|
|
| Options (40% total) | Options (40% total) |
|
|
Overview of content
Year 11 PDHPE
Core 1 : Better Health For Individuals
● Dimensions of health : physical, mental, emotional, social
● Health Behaviours of young people
● Factors Affecting our health
● Health promotion strategies
● Social justice : fairness, equity
Core 2 : The Body in Motion
● Body systems : skeletal, muscular, respiratory, circulatory
● Components of fitness : cardiorespiratory endurance, speed, strength
● Aerobic/anaerobic training
● Changes in the body during exercise : heart rate, cardiac output
Options studied
● First Aid (students will participate in a one-day first course and gain a qualification)
● Fitness Choices
Year 12 PDHPE
Core 1 : Health Priorities in Australia
● Measuring the health status of Australia
● Identifying priority health issues
● Groups experiencing health inequalities : Indigenous people, socioeconomically disadvantaged people
● Major health concerns : Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, mental health
● Health facilities and services
● Health promotion
Core 2 : Factors Affecting Performance
● Energy systems; how the body produces energy
● Types of training methods
● Physiological changes from training
● Sports psychology
● Nutrition & supplementation
● Recovery strategies
● Skill acquisition
Options studied
● Sports Medicine
● Improving performance
Sport, Lifestyle & Recreation (SLR)
● 2 Unit; Does NOT count towards ATAR
Course description
Students learn about the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle and recognise the need to be responsible and informed decision-makers. This course enables students to further develop their understanding of and competence in a range of sport and recreational pursuits. They are encouraged to establish a lifelong commitment to being physically active and to achieving movement potential.
What students learn
Through the study of Sport, Lifestyle and Recreations course, students learn to develop:
● knowledge and understanding of the factors that influence health and participation in physical activity
● knowledge and understanding of the principles that affect quality of performance
● an ability to analyse and implement strategies to promote health, physical activity and enhanced performance
● a capacity to influence the participation and performance of self and others
● a lifelong commitment to an active, healthy lifestyle and the achievement of movement potential.
The course provides the opportunity to specialise in areas of expertise or interest through optional modules (ranging from 20–40 hours in duration) such as:
● Aquatics
● Athletics
● Dance
● First Aid and Sports Injuries
● Fitness
● Games and Sports Applications
● Gymnastics
● Healthy Lifestyle
● Individual Games and Sports Applications
● Outdoor Recreation
● Resistance Training
● Social Perspectives of Games and Sport
● Sports Administration
● Sports Coaching and Training