Teaching primary physical education AND health – what does this look like in practice?

Teaching primary physical education AND health – what does this look like in practice?

Health education (HE) plays a critical role in empowering children with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about their wellbeing. In Australian primary schools, the focus on health education goes beyond simply teaching about the human body and good nutrition; it encompasses a comprehensive approach that nurtures physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects of a child’s life.

Historically, the key learning area of health and physical education (HPE) was named ‘Health’ which placed physical education (PE) in almost all schools on the periphery (Taggart et al. 1993). After much lobbying on behalf of the state of PE teaching in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 1992), PE was reasserted with the key learning area named HPE in the final release of the national curriculum (Swabey, 2006).

While we now acknowledge both learning areas, the challenge we face today, is who and how are the inter-connected content descriptions of these strands taught in commonly the one timetabled session a week of HPE in primary schools?

According to Beyond Blue, in 2023 1 in 7 young people aged 4 to 17 years’ experience a mental health condition in any given year, and research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports 1 in 4 (25%) aged 2-17 years are overweight or living with obesity. Despite consistent calls from the World Health Organisation (2023) for a meaningful focus on health in schools, why is health ‘falling between the cracks’?

While it is crucial to remember that each school is context specific and no two schools are the same, this recent publication, ‘Primary school Physical Education (PE) specialist teachers’ experiences of teaching Health Education (HE) and Physical Education’ (Cruickshank, V., Pill, S., Williams, J. et al., 2023) captured our attention. It explores how the two interconnected learning strands (PE; Movement and Physical Activity, MPA and HE; Personal, Social and Community Health, PSC) of the interconnected Australian Health and Physical Education curriculum ([AC:HPE], Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]) are delivered and experienced by teachers in primary schools.

This research consisted of an online survey followed by semi-structured interviews with 94 Tasmanian PE specialist primary school teachers (i.e.: teachers specifically employed to teach PE with the HE component remaining with the classroom teacher).

Cruickshank et al found significant scope for HE to ‘fall between the cracks’ due to either, or a combination of: allotted time for educators to teach HE when originally employed to teach PE, confused perceptions that HE was/is being taught by the classroom teacher, a lack of collaboration opportunities and time between classroom teacher and PE teacher, lack of content knowledge to teach HE, and perceived low priority area/value in a crowded curriculum.

As per Cruickshank et al’s discussion paper, ‘HPE is a socio-political education construction, so delivery varies across Australian states and territories as the organisation of each Australian school, staff and curriculum is the responsibility of the Departments of Education in each state.’ So what might need to happen at state education department level to change how health is taught? 

In the table below, we share an outline of the Victorian Department of Education (DE) ‘Physical and Sport Education — Delivery Requirements’:

This shows the mandated minimum delivery time for PE and Sport (MPA) in primary schools does not account for PSC teaching time. We must then assume that the PSC strand is being taught by the classroom teacher (which often is not the case), or extra time is timetabled for the specialist PE teacher to deliver (which also is often not the case).

As such, with this timing constraint, we of course frequently get asked by primary PE teachers:

• Do I teach the PSC strand?
• Do I report on students’ PSC progress? Or is this the classroom teacher?
• Do I integrate both strands in all my PE units of work because it is HPE?
• How, when I am only given time a week to teach PE do I cover the PSC strand?
• How and what do I teach in Health with my limited content knowledge?

Questions to consider in your schools’ context

What does HPE teaching look like at your school? Do you feel confident and prepared to teach HE as well as PE in your school? Are you provided opportunities to collaborate with classroom teachers to support health delivered in the classroom? What does the reporting of HPE look like at your school? Do you have additional timetabled time to teach HE as the PE teacher?

We want to hear from you

Let us know how we can support you through the development of professional learning health opportunities. Our professional learning coordinator, Jo Ritson, would love to take just five minutes of your time to hear what your experience is in your school.

Please email Jo at jo.ritson@achper.vic.edu.au to express your interest, and she will be in touch to set up at time to chat.

Looking for lesson ideas to help you interpret the content descriptions for PSC? Take a look at our Curriculum Support Charts and if you need further support, please don’t hesitate to get in touch; we’re here to help!