Health and Physical Education

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Foundation Year 

Foundation Year Description

The Foundation Year curriculum provides the basis for developing knowledge, understanding and skills for students to lead healthy, safe and active lives. The content gives students opportunities to learn about their strengths and simple actions they can take to keep themselves and their classmates healthy and safe. The content explores the people who are important to students and develo

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The Foundation Year curriculum provides the basis for developing knowledge, understanding and skills for students to lead healthy, safe and active lives. The content gives students opportunities to learn about their strengths and simple actions they can take to keep themselves and their classmates healthy and safe.

The content explores the people who are important to students and develops students’ capacity to initiate and maintain respectful relationships in different contexts, including at school, at home, in the classroom and when participating in physical activities.

The Foundation curriculum provides opportunities for students to learn through movement. The content enables students to develop and practise fundamental movement skills through active play and structured movement activities. This improves competence and confidence in their movement abilities. The content also provides opportunities for students to learn about movement as they participate in physical activity in a range of different settings.

Focus areas to be addressed in Foundation include:

  • safe use of medicines (AD)
  • food and nutrition (FN)
  • health benefits of physical activity (HBPA)
  • mental health and wellbeing (MH)
  • relationships (RS)
  • safety (S)
  • active play and minor games (AP)
  • fundamental movement skills (FMS)
  • rhythmic and expressive movement activities (RE).

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Students learn that humans are made in the image of God and that each person is to be respected, cared for and kept safe.   

Students learn that, as whole people, boys and girls are equal and have both strengths and limitations. They understand that their body is a good and precious gift from God and they are supported to use the anatomical names of private body parts when learning about body ownership, privacy, respect, and responsibility.

Students learn about respectful relationships, love and forgiveness.  They learn about God’s plan for people to help each other to be happy, healthy and safe. Students identify people who are important to them and can help to keep them safe. They are guided to use clues to recognise safe and unsafe situations and identify possible actions. Students learn strategies including persistence, to react to and report unsafe situations. 

Foundation Year Content Descriptions

Personal, Social and Community Health
Being healthy, safe and active

Identify personal strengths

Elaborations
  • identifying things they are good at and describing how these have changed over time
  • participating in a range of minor games and exploring which ones they enjoy and what makes them enjoyable
  • describing how they feel when they are learning a new skill and what strategies they can use to persist until they are successful
  • identifying ways they can use their strengths to help themselves and others

Name parts of the body andhow their body is growing and changing

Elaborations
  • recognising how bodies grow and change over time
  • recording and mapping growth on individual and group growth charts or constructing a class height line
  • identifying and labelling private parts of the body and understanding the contexts when body parts should be kept private

Identify people andprotective behaviours and other actions that help keep themselves safe and healthy

Elaborations
  • identifying characters in different texts who help the main character to stay safe and healthy
  • identifying knowledge, skills and understandings that can help keep them safe and healthy
  • identifying different relationships they have with people and which of these relationships make them feel loved, safe and supported
  • naming trusted people in their community who can help them stay safe and healthy, and practising ways of asking for help in a range of different scenarios
  • suggesting safe places at home, at school, while playing or while shopping and identifying what makes those places safe
Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing

Practise personal and social skills to interact positively with others

Elaborations
  • accessing stories about characters who have been excluded from a group and discussing how the character could deal with the situation
  • discussing how it feels to be included in activities
  • practising personal skills such as expressing needs, wants and feelings, active listening and showing self-discipline to be an effective group member
  • listening and responding to others when participating in physical activities to achieve agreed outcomes

Identify andemotional responses people may experience in different situations

Elaborations
  • identifying and describing the emotions of people who are happy, sad, excited, tired, angry, scared or confused
  • learning and using appropriate language and actions to communicate their feelings in different situations
  • recalling and sharing emotional responses to different situations and representing this in a variety of ways
  • reading and viewing stories about adventures and talking about how characters feel and react when taking risks
  • talking about connections between feelings, body reactions and body language
  • exploring how someone might think and feel during an emergency
Contributing to healthy and active communities

Identify actions that promote health,and

Elaborations
  • identifying household substances that can be dangerous and suggesting examples of how they can be stored safely in the home
  • grouping foods into categories such as food groups and ‘always’ and ‘sometimes’ foods
  • recognising and following safety symbols and procedures at home and in water and road environments
  • understanding the importance of personal hygiene practices, including hand washing, face washing, nose blowing and toilet routines
  • recognising that being kind, fair and respectful to others can support class health and wellbeing
  • looking at different ways the community keeps them safe, for example devices like lights, procedures like safe swimming or safe food handling and safety volunteers

Participate inthat promotes engagement with outdoor settings and the natural environment

Elaborations
  • exploring a range of ways to play and be active in outdoor or natural settings
  • understanding how to be safe in the outdoors through play in natural environments
  • playing traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander games such as Kolap using natural materials
Movement and Physical Activity
Moving our body

Practiseand movement sequences using different body parts

Elaborations
  • performing locomotor skills in any direction from one point to another
  • sending, controlling and receiving objects at different levels and in different ways
  • performing a range of water confidence skills
  • creating movement sequences without equipment
  • responding with movement to rhythm, beat, music and words

Participate in games with and without equipment

Elaborations
  • participating in games that require students to be aware of personal safety and game boundaries
  • participating in games from other cultures
  • participating in games responding to stimuli, such as musical chairs, rhythm actions, alphabet shapes
Understanding movement

Explore how regularkeeps individuals healthy and well

Elaborations
  • describing their feelings after participating in different physical activities
  • describing how the body responds to participating in different physical activities
  • sharing the things they enjoy about being physically active
  • identifying how regular physical activity can help keep people healthy

Identify andhow their body moves in relation to effort, space, time, objects and people

Elaborations
  • moving at different speeds and in different directions with others in a designated area
  • demonstrating the difference between personal space and general space in physical activities
  • describing body positions when performing a range of different movements
Learning through movement

Cooperate with others when participating in physical activities

Elaborations
  • working with a partner or small group to complete a movement task or challenge
  • mirroring a partner while moving to music
  • using words and body language to communicate intentions clearly when playing minor games

Test possible solutions tothrough trial and error

Elaborations
  • attempting different ways to solve a movement challenge and discussing which ways were successful or not
  • trialling a number of techniques when trying new movement activities
  • making positive choices when faced with a decision about how they participate in a movement activity
  • performing a new movement task for others in their group or class

Follow rules when participating in physical activities

Elaborations
  • following instructions for personal safety and fair play
  • responding to a whistle and commands when participating in physical activities
  • identifying boundaries such as personal space and playing area
  • demonstrating appropriate use of equipment

Show subject-specific achievement standard

Foundation Year Achievement Standard

By the end of Foundation Year, students recognise how they are growing and changing. They identify and describe the different emotions people experience. They identify actions that help them be healthy, safe and physically active. They identify different settings where they can be active and demonstrate how to move and play safely. They describe how their body responds to movement.

Students use personal and social skills when working with others in a range of activities. They demonstrate, with guidance, practices and protective behaviours to keep themselves safe and healthy in different activities. They perform fundamental movement skills and solve movement challenges.

Show sub-strand-specific achievement standard

Years 1 and 2 

Years 1 and 2 Band Description

The curriculum for Years 1 and 2 builds on the learning from Foundation and supports students to make decisions to enhance their health, safety and participation in physical activity. The content enables students to explore their own sense of self and the factors that contribute to and influence their identities. Students learn about emotions, how to enhance their interactions with others, and

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The curriculum for Years 1 and 2 builds on the learning from Foundation and supports students to make decisions to enhance their health, safety and participation in physical activity. The content enables students to explore their own sense of self and the factors that contribute to and influence their identities. Students learn about emotions, how to enhance their interactions with others, and the physical and social changes they go through as they grow older.

The content explores health messages and how they relate to health decisions and behaviours, and examines strategies students can use when they need help. The content also provides opportunities for students to learn through movement. It supports them in broadening the range and complexity of fundamental movement skills they are able to perform. They learn how to select, transfer and apply simple movement skills and sequences individually, in groups and in teams.

Students also further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to movement by exploring simple rule systems and safe use of equipment in a variety of physical activities and games. Through active participation, they investigate the body’s response to different types of physical activities. In addition, students develop personal and social skills such as cooperation, decision-making, problem-solving and persistence through movement settings.

Focus areas to be addressed in Years 1 and 2 include:

  • safe use of medicines (AD)
  • food and nutrition (FN)
  • health benefits of physical activity (HBPA)
  • mental health and wellbeing (MH)
  • relationships (RS)
  • safety (S)
  • active play and minor games (AP)
  • fundamental movement skills (FMS)
  • rhythmic and expressive movement activities (RE).

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Students learn that humans are made in the image of God. They understand that all life is sacred, and that each person is to be respected, cared for and kept safe. 

Students learn that they are good and unique beings, gifted by God. They are supported to use the anatomical names of private body parts when developing their understanding of body ownership, privacy, respect and responsibility. 
 
Students continue to learn about just and respectful relationships, love and forgiveness. They develop their ability to make decisions to enhance their own and others’ safety and wellbeing. Students are guided to use clues to recognise safe and unsafe situations. They develop strategies

including persistence and use of safety helpers to react to and report unsafe situations.

Years 1 and 2 Content Descriptions

Personal, Social and Community Health
Being healthy, safe and active

their own strengths and achievements and those of others, andhow these contribute to personal

Elaborations
  • describing personal achievements such as doing something on their own for the first time and sharing how they felt and how it influenced personal identities
  • accessing stories where characters demonstrate strengths, sharing how these strengths helped the character be successful and recognising which of these strengths they possess
  • participating in games and physical activities and describing how others’ strengths contribute to successful outcomes

physical and social changes that occur as children grow older andhow family andacknowledge these

Elaborations
  • describing changes in their physical appearance now compared to when they were younger
  • identifying and describing significant relationships in their lives and how these have evolved or changed over time
  • discussing ways families and cultural groups acknowledge and celebrate major stages of development
  • discussing tasks they are allowed to do by themselves and explaining how these have changed since they were younger

Practise strategies they can use when they feel uncomfortable, unsafe or need help with a task, problem or situation

Elaborations
  • identifying and rehearsing strategies they can use when requiring assistance, such as asking an adult, reading basic signs and solving a problem with friends
  • locating and recording phone numbers of local organisations they can contact in case of emergency and rehearsing a phone call to triple zero
  • identifying situations that require the help of emergency services
  • recognising photos and locations of safe places and a network of people who can help
  • describing warning signs (physical, emotional and external) that can help them to know if they are safe or unsafe

situations and opportunities to promote health,and

Elaborations
  • identifying poison labels and medicine packaging and understanding to ask an adult before taking medicines
  • exploring how eating healthy foods can influence health and wellbeing
  • exploring benefits of regular physical activity and identifying opportunities when they can be active at school, at home and in the community
  • describing actions to stay safe in a range of environments, including water, road, nature and outdoors
Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing

ways to include others to make them feel they belong

Elaborations
  • identifying and appreciating similarities and differences in people and groups
  • exploring how people feel when they are included and excluded from groups and activities
  • demonstrating appropriate language when encouraging others
  • demonstrating how to include others in physical activities when completing movement tasks or practising for performance
  • expressing appreciation and offering encouragement using a variety of communication techniques
  • talking about the role of kinship as an important part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures

Identify and practise emotional responses that account for own and others’ feelings

Elaborations
  • recognising own emotions and demonstrating positive ways to react in different situations
  • identifying the body’s reaction to a range of situations, including safe and unsafe situations, and comparing the different emotional responses
  • predicting how a person or character might be feeling based on the words they use, their facial expressions and body language
  • understanding how a person’s reaction to a situation can affect others’ feelings

health messages and how they relate todecisions and behaviours

Elaborations
  • identifying advertisements they have encountered that contain health messages
  • identifying popular health slogans and discussing the behaviours these slogans are encouraging
  • creating their own positive health message and sharing it with the class
Contributing to healthy and active communities

Explore actions that help make the classroom a healthy, safe and active place

Elaborations
  • creating a bank of movement games and physical activity cards students can select from and play during lesson breaks and before or after school
  • exploring sustainable practices that students can implement in the classroom to improve health and wellbeing of the class
  • exploring how fruit and water breaks help support class health and wellbeing
  • recognising how their actions help keep classmates safe, including identifying things not to be shared due to potential of contamination, infection and anaphylaxis
  • explaining and demonstrating how being fair and respectful contributes to class health and wellbeing

Identify and explore natural and built environments in the localwherecan take place

Elaborations
  • recognising that physical activities can take place in a range of different environments, including natural and built settings
  • participating in physical activities within the built structures in the school and local community where physical activity takes place

similarities and differences in individuals and groups, and explore how these are celebrated and respected

Elaborations
  • examining images or descriptions of different families, communities and cultural groups to identify the features that make them similar and different
  • sharing the things that make them similar to and different from others in the class
  • exploring the importance to different cultures of storytelling through dance, music and song, including Aboriginal Dreaming/Creation stories
  • discussing practices of their own culture used to pass on significant information from one generation to the next
Movement and Physical Activity
Moving our body

Performin a variety of movement sequences and situations

Elaborations
  • performing locomotor movements using different body parts to travel in different directions
  • performing fundamental movement skills involving controlling objects with equipment and different parts of the body
  • demonstrating balances and describing what helps to maintain stable positions
  • demonstrating how to transfer weight from one part of the body to another
  • demonstrating changes in speed, direction and level of movement in response to changes in music tempo
  • creating, following, repeating and altering movement sequences and games in response to rhythm, music or words
  • selecting and implementing different movement skills to be successful in a game
  • constructing and performing imaginative and original movement sequences in response to stimuli

and participate in games with and without equipment

Elaborations
  • inventing games with rules using one or two pieces of equipment
  • participating in games that use a number of different fundamental movement skills
  • using stimuli such as equipment, rhythm, music and words to create games
Understanding movement

the body’s reactions to participating in physical activities

Elaborations
  • participating in activities of different intensity and comparing the body’s reactions
  • identifying positive feelings they experience when participating in physical activities
  • participating in new and unfamiliar activities and describing how they felt about the experience

Incorporate elements of effort, space, time, objects and people in performing simple movement sequences

Elaborations
  • comparing different types of movements and identifying which ones are easier and harder and why this might be the case
  • performing movements under, over, through and between objects, people and equipment
  • demonstrating how they can balance on different parts of the body and make different shapes
Learning through movement

Use strategies to work in group situations when participating in physical activities

Elaborations
  • working cooperatively with a partner when practising new skills
  • describing and demonstrating how to include others in physical activity
  • suggesting and trialling how a game can be changed so that everyone can be involved

Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving

Elaborations
  • predicting possible outcomes of alternative actions and deciding which one is likely to be the most effective
  • asking for and responding to feedback from peers or teachers on their performance
  • reflecting on their performance and identifying and demonstrating ways they can perform a skill more successfully

Identify rules and fairwhen participating in physical activities

Elaborations
  • explaining why rules are needed in games and physical activities
  • demonstrating turn-taking and sharing equipment when participating in minor games
  • explaining how rules contribute to fair play and applying them in group activities
  • talking about how and when classmates and others have demonstrated fair play

Show subject-specific achievement standard

Years 1 and 2 Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 2, students describe changes that occur as they grow older. They recognise how strengths and achievements contribute to identities. They identify how emotional responses impact on others’ feelings. They examine messages related to health decisions and describe how to keep themselves and others healthy, safe and physically active. They identify areas where they can be active and how the body reacts to different physical activities.

Students demonstrate positive ways to interact with others. They select and apply strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe and are able to ask for help with tasks or problems. They demonstrate fundamental movement skills in a variety of movement sequences and situations and test alternatives to solve movement challenges. They perform movement sequences that incorporate the elements of movement.

Show sub-strand-specific achievement standard

Years 3 and 4 

Years 3 and 4 Band Description

The Year 3 and 4 curriculum further develops students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to their health, wellbeing, safety and participation in physical activity. In these years, students begin to explore personal and social factors that support and contribute to their identities and emotional responses in varying situations. They also develop a further understanding of how

Read full description ›

The Year 3 and 4 curriculum further develops students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to their health, wellbeing, safety and participation in physical activity. In these years, students begin to explore personal and social factors that support and contribute to their identities and emotional responses in varying situations. They also develop a further understanding of how their bodies grow and change as they get older.

The content explores knowledge, understanding and skills that supports students to build and maintain respectful relationships, make health-enhancing and safe decisions, and interpret health messages from different sources to take action to enhance their own health and wellbeing.

The curriculum in Years 3 and 4 builds on previous learning in movement to help students develop greater proficiency across the range of fundamental movement skills. Students combine movements to create more complicated movement patterns and sequences. Through participation in a variety of physical activities, students further develop their knowledge about movement and how the body moves. They do this as they explore the features of activities that meet their needs and interests and learn about the benefits of regular physical activity.

The Year 3 and 4 curriculum also gives students opportunities to develop through movement personal and social skills such as leadership, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, persistence and decision-making.

Focus areas to be addressed in Years 3 and 4 include:

  • alcohol and other drugs (AD)
  • food and nutrition (FN)
  • health benefits of physical activity (HBPA)
  • mental health and wellbeing (MH)
  • relationships and sexuality (RS)
  • safety (S)
  • active play and minor games (AP)
  • challenge and adventure activities (CA)
  • fundamental movement skills (FMS)
  • games and sports (GS)
  • lifelong physical activities (LLPA)
  • rhythmic and expressive movement activities (RE).

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Students learn that humans are made in the image of God, and that their growing and changing bodies and emotions are gifts from God.  They understand that each person is to be respected, cared for and kept safe.

Students learn about the influence that others, including the media, may have on their identities, behavior and gender attitudes. Students use anatomical names of private body parts when developing their understanding of body ownership, privacy, respect and responsibility. 

Students learn how making loving and just decisions help to build relationships and communities. Students develop situational awareness and use clues to recognise safe and unsafe situations. They react by applying strategies including using networks and reporting unsafe situations to safety helpers.

Years 3 and 4 Content Descriptions

Personal, Social and Community Health
Being healthy, safe and active

Explore how success, challenge and failure strengthen

Elaborations
  • exploring factors that support personal achievement and development of personal identities, such as the influence of family, friends and school
  • suggesting ways to respond positively to challenges and failure, such as using self-talk, early help-seeking behaviours, and optimistic thinking
  • persisting with new activities and examining how success through persistence can have positive outcomes and strengthen identities
  • explaining how meeting challenges makes them feel good about themselves and builds confidence to try new things
  • talking about how overcoming a challenge or adversity can unite a group of diverse people

Explore strategies to manage physical, social and emotional change

Elaborations
  • discussing physical, social and emotional changes that occur as individuals get older, and exploring how these changes impact on how they think and feel about themselves and different situations
  • exploring how friendships change as they grow older and identifying strategies to manage change
  • identifying people or sources of information that they can access if they have questions about the changes that are occurring

andstrategies that can be used in situations that make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe

Elaborations
  • recognising physical responses that indicate they are feeling uncomfortable or unsafe
  • rehearsing assertive behaviours and strong non-verbal communication skills
  • identifying and practising appropriate responses to unsafe situations in relation to drugs and drug use
  • indicating on a local map the location of safe places and people who can help
  • examining protective behaviours to stay safe in different situations, including near water or roads, in the park or when someone makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe

Identify and practise strategies to promote health,and

Elaborations
  • identifying how medications and other substances can be stored safely in the home and at school
  • examining their own eating patterns by researching The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and identifying healthier food choices
  • proposing changes they can make to their daily routines to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity levels
  • identifying and practising ways of behaving in the playground that ensure the safety of themselves and others
Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing

how respect, empathy and valuingcan positively influence relationships

Elaborations
  • describing behaviours that show empathy and respect for the rights of others
  • creating an online connection with another school and identifying similarities and differences between students
  • predicting and reflecting on how other students might feel in a range of challenging situations, and discussing what they can do to support them
  • recognising that bullying behaviour can take many forms, not only physical
  • describing safe bystander behaviour when they notice unfair treatment
  • talking about how reconciliation in Australia builds relationships

how emotional responses vary in depth and strength

Elaborations
  • recognising own emotional responses and levels of their response in different situations
  • understanding that emotional responses vary across cultures and differ between people and different situations
  • analysing scenarios and identifying possible triggers and warning signs to predict emotional responses
  • describing strategies they can use to identify and manage their emotions before making a decision to act

and interpretinformation and messages in the media and internet

Elaborations
  • accessing different sources of health information and examining the accuracy of these sources
  • examining health messages from different sources and exploring choices, behaviours and outcomes conveyed in these messages
  • investigating how health messages influence health decisions
Contributing to healthy and active communities

strategies to make the classroom and playground healthy, safe and active spaces