Strands, sub-strands and threads
The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education is organised into two content strands: personal, social and community health and movement and physical activity. Each strand contains content descriptions which are organised under three sub-strands.
Table 1: Overview of sub-strands and threads in the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education
| Strands | ||
|---|---|---|
| Personal, social and community health | Movement and physical activity | |
| Sub-strands and threads |
Being healthy, safe and active
|
Moving our body
|
|
Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing
|
Understanding movement
|
|
|
Contributing to healthy and active communities
|
Learning through movement
|
|
Relationship between the strands
In the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (F–10), the two strands, personal, social and community health and movement and physical activity, are interrelated and inform and support each other. Both strands must be taught in each year from Foundation to Year 10. Creating opportunities for practical application will enhance the development of knowledge, understanding and skills across a range of relevant and meaningful health and movement focus areas. Students should be provided with the opportunity to participate in physical activity on a weekly basis as a minimum as part of the HPE curriculum.
Sub-strands
1. Being healthy, safe and active
The content focuses on supporting students to make decisions about their own health, safety and wellbeing. It develops the knowledge, understanding and skills to support students to be resilient. It enables them to access and understand health information and empowers them to make healthy, safe and active choices. In addition, the content explores personal identities and emotions, and the contextual factors that influence students’ health, safety and wellbeing. Students also learn about the behavioural aspects related to regular physical activity and develop the dispositions needed to be active individuals.
2. Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing
The content develops knowledge, understanding and skills to enable students to critically engage with a range of health focus areas and issues. It also helps them apply new information to changing circumstances and environments that influence their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing.
3. Contributing to healthy and active communities
The content develops knowledge, understanding and skills to enable students to critically analyse contextual factors that influence the health and wellbeing of communities. The content supports students to selectively access information, products, services and environments to take action to promote the health and wellbeing of their communities.
4. Moving our body
The content lays the important early foundations of play and fundamental movement skills. It focuses on the acquisition and refinement of a broad range of movement skills. Students apply movement concepts and strategies to enhance performance and move with competence and confidence. Students develop skills and dispositions necessary for lifelong participation in physical activities.
5. Understanding movement
The content focuses on developing knowledge and understanding about how and why our body moves and what happens to our body when it moves. While participating in physical activities, students analyse and evaluate theories, techniques and strategies that can be used to understand and enhance the quality of movement and physical activity performance. They explore the place and meaning of physical activity, outdoor recreation and sport in their own lives, and across time and cultures.
6. Learning through movement
The content focuses on personal and social skills that can be developed through participation in movement and physical activities. These skills include communication, decision-making, problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, and cooperation. The skills can be developed as students work individually and in small groups or teams to perform movement tasks or solve movement challenges. Through movement experiences, students develop other important personal and social skills such as self-awareness, self-management, persisting with challenges and striving for enhanced performance. They also experience the varied roles within organised sport and recreation.
Focus areas
The 12 focus areas provide the breadth of learning across Foundation to Year 10 that must be taught for students to acquire and demonstrate the knowledge, understanding and skills described in the achievement standard for each band of learning. The focus areas have been mapped to each content description and elaboration (annotations included in brackets) to assist teachers in their planning. Descriptions of each of the focus areas and the learning expected in each can be accessed through hyperlinks from the focus area annotations after each elaboration.
addresses a range of drugs, including prescription drugs, bush and alternative medicines, energy drinks, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs and performance-enhancing drugs. The content supports students to explore the impact drugs can have on individuals, families and communities.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will learn about the following:
- safe use of medicines
- alternatives to taking medicines
- the effect of drugs on the body (including energy drinks and caffeine)
- factors that influence the use of different types of drugs
- impact of drug use on individuals and communities
- making informed decisions about drugs (assertive behaviour, peer influence, harm minimisation, awareness of blood-borne viruses)
- performance-enhancing drugs in sport.
addresses the role of food and nutrition in enhancing health and wellbeing. The content supports students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to make healthy, informed food choices and to explore the contextual factors that influence eating habits and food choices.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will learn about the following:
- food groups and recommendations for healthy eating (including The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating)
- nutritional requirements and dietary needs (including The Australian Dietary Guidelines)
- food labelling and packaging
- food advertising
- personal, social, economic and cultural influences on food choices and eating habits
- strategies for planning and maintaining a healthy, balanced diet
- healthy options for snacks, meals and drinks
- sustainable food choices.
addresses the influence and impact regular physical activity participation has on individual and community health and wellbeing. The content supports students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to make active choices and to explore the range of influences on physical activity participation and choices.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will learn about the following:
- physical benefits of participating in physical activities (including impact on health-related and skill-related components of fitness)
- benefits of physical activities based on intensity, nature and frequency
- social, emotional and cognitive benefits of regular physical activity
- social, cultural and environmental influences on physical activity participation
- sedentary behaviours and their impact on health and wellbeing
- strategies for minimising sedentary behaviour and including physical activity in daily routines.
addresses how mental health and wellbeing can be enhanced and strengthened at an individual and community level. The content supports students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to manage their own mental health and wellbeing and to support that of others.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will learn about the following:
- mental health and wellbeing, and mental health promotion
- destigmatising mental illness in the community
- the impact of physical, social, spiritual and emotional health on wellbeing
- body image and self-worth and their impact on mental health and wellbeing
- resilience, and skills that support resilient behaviour
- coping skills, help-seeking strategies and community support resources
- networks of support for promoting mental health and wellbeing.
addresses physical, social and emotional changes that occur over time and the significant role relationships and sexuality play in these changes. The content supports students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills that will help them to establish and manage respectful relationships. It also supports them to develop positive practices in relation to their reproductive and sexual health and the development of their identities. In doing so, students will gain an understanding of the factors that influence gender and sexual identities.
During Foundation to Year 2, students will learn about:
- parts of the body and how the body changes as they grow
- people who are important to them
- strategies for relating to and interacting with others
- assertive behaviour and standing up for themselves.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Year 3 to Year 10 will learn about the following:
- people who are important to them
- strategies for relating to and interacting with others
- assertive behaviour and standing up for themselves
- establishing and managing changing relationships (offline and online)
- bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence (including discrimination based on race, gender and sexuality)
- strategies for dealing with relationships when there is an imbalance of power (including seeking help or leaving the relationship)
- puberty and how the body changes over time
- managing the physical, social and emotional changes that occur during puberty
- reproduction and sexual health
- practices that support reproductive and sexual health (contraception, negotiating consent, and prevention of sexually transmitted infections and blood-borne viruses)
- changing identities and the factors that influence them (including personal, cultural, gender and sexual identities)
- celebrating and respecting difference and diversity in individuals and communities.
addresses safety issues that students may encounter in their daily lives. The content supports students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to make safe decisions and behave in ways that protect their own safety and that of others.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will learn about the following:
- safety at school
- safe practices at home, in road or transport environments, in the outdoors and when near water
- safe and unsafe situations at home, school and parties and in the community
- strategies for dealing with unsafe or uncomfortable situations
- safe practices when using information and communication technologies (ICT) and online services, including dealing with cyberbullying
- managing personal safety
- first aid and emergency care, including safe blood practices
- safety when participating in physical activity, including sports safety, sun safety, use of protective equipment and modifying rules
- relationship and dating safety.
focuses on learning through which students actively engage in play with people, objects and representations; indoors, outdoors, alone, with a partner or in a group. The content supports students to be physically active and develop skills such as persistence, negotiation, problem solving, planning and cooperation.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 4 will participate in the following:
- imaginative play
- small group games
- minor games
- lead-up games.
focuses on how individuals participate in a variety of physical activities designed to challenge individuals physiologically, behaviourally and socially in diverse contexts and environments. The content supports students to develop knowledge, understandings and skills to assess hazards and manage risks.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Year 5 to Year 10 will participate in the following:
- initiative games
- movement challenges (as individuals and in teams or groups)
- recreational activities in natural and outdoor settings
- navigational challenges.
Schools could also offer the following activities within this focus area if they have access to specialised facilities and equipment and relevant teacher expertise:
- bushwalking
- camping
- biathlon and triathlon
- martial arts
- rock climbing
- canoeing and kayaking
- cycling (mountain biking, BMX, road and track cycling)
- surfing
- skiing (snow or water)
- swimming for performance (with a focus on technique).
focuses on the development of fundamental movement skills that provide the foundation for competent and confident participation in a range of physical activities such as games, sports, dance, gymnastics and physical recreation.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 6 will have opportunities to practise and develop the following skills:
Locomotor and non-locomotor skills:
- rolling
- balancing
- sliding
- jogging
- running
- leaping
- jumping
- hopping
- dodging
- galloping
- skipping
- floating and moving the body through water to safety.
Object control skills:
- bouncing
- throwing
- catching
- kicking
- striking.
focuses on the development of movement skills, concepts and strategies through a variety of games and sports. This content builds on learning in active play and minor games and fundamental movement skills. Most games and sports can be classified into: invasion games, net and wall games, striking and fielding games and target games.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Year 3 to Year 10 will participate in the following:
- modified games
- traditional games or sports
- culturally significant games and sports (such as traditional Indigenous games and games of significance from the Asia region)
- non-traditional games and sports (including student-designed games).
focuses on how participation in physical activity can enhance health-related fitness and wellbeing across the lifespan.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Year 3 to Year 10 will participate in the following:
- individual and group fitness activities
- active recreation activities.
Schools could also offer the following activities if they have access to specialised facilities and equipment and relevant teacher expertise:
- swimming
- tai chi, yoga, Pilates
- bushwalking
- recreational cycling
- resistance training.
focuses on how movement can be composed and performed in response to stimuli such as equipment, beats and sounds, images, words or themes.
It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will participate in the following:
- creative movement
- movement exploration
- dance styles and dance elements.
Schools could also offer the following activities if they have access to specialised facilities and equipment and relevant teacher expertise:
- circus skills
- rhythmic gymnastics
- educational gymnastics
- tai chi, yoga.
Advice on appropriate timing for addressing each focus area is provided in Table 2 below and the band descriptions. It is expected that the focus areas identified in each band description will contribute substantially to the Health and Physical Education teaching and learning program for the relevant band of learning. Decisions about the specific timing of when each focus area will be taught within the two-year band (for example, whether to teach about safety in Year 3 or Year 4 or in both years) are the responsibility of schools and teachers. Planning decisions should take into account local needs, available resources, students’ readiness and community priorities.
Across the Health and Physical Education curriculum from Foundation to Year 10, the focus areas that must be addressed in each band of learning are those indicated with a tick in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Focus areas across the learning continuum
| Focus area | Foundation – Year 2 | Years 3–6 | Years 7–10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol and other drugs (AD) |
✓ Medicines only |
✓ | ✓ |
| Food and nutrition (FN) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Health benefits of physical activity (HBPA) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mental health and wellbeing (MH) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Relationships and sexuality (RS) |
✓ Relationships only |
✓ | ✓ |
| Safety (S) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Active play and minor games (AP) | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
| Challenge and adventure activities (CA) | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fundamental movement skills (FMS) | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
| Games and sports (GS) | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lifelong physical activities (LLPA) | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rhythmic and expressive activities (RE) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Same-sex attracted and gender-diverse students
As with other areas of student diversity, it is crucial to acknowledge and affirm diversity in relation to sexuality and gender in Health and Physical Education. Inclusive Health and Physical Education programs which affirm sexuality and gender diversity acknowledge the impact of diversity on students’ social worlds, acknowledge and respond to the needs of all students, and provide more meaningful and relevant learning opportunities for all students.
The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (F–10) is designed to allow schools flexibility to meet the learning needs of all young people, particularly in the health focus area of relationships and sexuality. All school communities have a responsibility when implementing the Health and Physical Education curriculum to ensure that teaching is inclusive and relevant to the lived experiences of all students. This is particularly important when teaching about reproduction and sexual health, to ensure that the needs of all students are met, including students who may be same-sex attracted, gender diverse or intersex.