[music] The new Australian Health and PE curriculum will really help teachers to present
a contemporary, cohesive view of health and PE that'll serve kids
as they are now and given them the knowledge, skills
and understanding to help them in the future. It's quite exciting that
it will allow teachers and students to be able to explore the issues that are
important to them in a safe way. It's a first, cohesive, contemporary, national initiative that will give a a learning guarantee to Australian students
for the very first time. And we'll therefore be able to have I guess a national conversation amongst teachers for the very first time. The sort of framework
and direction and guidance that this curriculum can give those generalist teachers – particularly in and around the movement
skills – in the development fundamental movement skills – and development of movement capabilities, where it provides a
framework for them to develop their confidence and the competence and their understanding about delivering quality movement experiences for students. It's
got two strands – personal, social and community health; and movement and physical activity. They've got
sub-strands to them but cross-cutting that we've got twelve
focus areas.
By having that structure we're allowing for integration, where
appropriate, of those two strands and that integration will then mean that
teachers have really rich units and that time is used most effectively.
The curriculum really acknowledges the diversity of students in the classroom, the diversity of relationships that they
will have and the diversity of families and cultures that they come from.
I think it'll be an opportunity for
teachers to do things differently, to do things that can
really connect with students in in contemporary Australia. The context
we live in is a fast-paced, changing environment. We
have a lot of technology that never existed
before which brings opportunities and changes
in structure of how our a society functions. So we have
young people who engage with other young people online and face to face. So the curriculum
actually reflects that. Relationships and sexuality is an
important part of teaching in a school. This curriculum just
make that more explicit and really clearly helps teachers to know
what to teach and when. Young people in rural and remote schools
have got very different resources and possibly interests to those who might be at an inner-city
school. So that flexibility I think is is really important. Every
teacher is a teacher of well-being and at our core is actually
having a young person who feels good about themselves. By taking a strength
based approach you're looking at the resources that a
person might have and it's not just about money or objects.
Everybody has got something to build on whether they can can connect with their
family or there are some community connections they can make in order to lead a safer, healthier more active life.
The most exciting part
of the mental health and well-being aspect, that focus area of this curriculum, is the fact that it can teach young people the skills that they need
and it gives them a toolkit to pick and choose from through all aspects of their life. Whether
they do have a mental health, an underlying mental health disorder, or they just want to
feel happier and well. The development of fundamental
movement skills, as we would call them in the profession, they're the foundation for development of all movement for kids and then into adulthood.
So to develop the fundamental
movement skills through primary school to to put the building blocks into
place through kindergarten into about year two, then to
be able to build on those and develop
students' abilities around reinforcing those fundamental
movement skills really does set the platform for
students then moving into a secondary context where they're able to
specialise in a whole range of movement contexts, whether those be team games, individual, recreational adventure type activities, and then to
be able to reinforce those habits and behaviours, I guess almost builds off the
natural enthusiasm that young people bring to school around
movement, and around play, and exploring their movement potential and to really take
advantages of those early years of education where we can certainly put in place those building
blocks for movement.
As we put in the building blocks for reading and writing, we can put in place those building
blocks for movement and work off those natural enthusiasm and excitement that children bring into, certainly the
early years, of primary school for moving. In the physical activity and movement
strand students will very explicitly learn a range of movement skills and knowledge
about the movement. But while they're doing that they will also
develop a range of other skills such as teamwork, leadership, taking
responsibility, developing relationships. To know yourself well, to be a confident and resilient
young person and a resilient adult, and to be able to
function well as an adult, and to have great relationships
and to know where to get help when you need it or when a young person
that you know also needs it.
It's also important so that they can make
safe, informed, mutual decisions about the relationships
that they have in their lives. Look the opportunities that we'll have
now to share resources across the nation, to share best practice across the
nation, is going to be a really exciting time. [music].
