Health & Physical Education

Overview

The Physical Education and Health department seeks to provide authentic learning experiences through participation in safe, challenging, and positive environments. By learning through practical participation students will develop skills that will foster lifelong learners. Physical Education and Health have the ability to teach akonga how to be good citizens. The skills they can develop through this curriculum area includes:

Year 9-10

There are a variety of subjects which are available for junior students both optional and compulsory. The optional subjects include Health plus, Outdoor Education, and High-Performance Sport. The compulsory requirement is for all junior students to do Physical Education and Health. They will be provided with 2 hours of Physical Education, accompanied by 1 hour of Health per week. Students participate in a 2-year rotation regarding the content in Physical Education. The year 9 and 10 students participate in differing Health units over the first 2 years at college. The content includes:

Year 11-13 Physical Education

Physical Education is a fully accredited subject that offers a range of Achievement standards that best suit the individual student. The Achievement standards can be targeted at someone who wants to follow a path towards the scientific nature or sports management side of Physical Education. Within this curriculum area, students will look at influences on physical activity, biomechanics, anatomy, trends and themes within sport. This will allow them to challenge stereotypes and assumptions. Creating a critical thinker which is a necessary skill in the 21st century. Students can also be provided with the opportunity to learn about coaching styles, interpersonal skills and organisation of events. This subject is also a university-approved subject.

Year 11-13 Health

Health is a subject that allows students to develop skills and knowledge which can be used in their everyday life. This may include concepts like communication, rights and responsibilities in relationships, understanding your own well-being, sexuality, risk and protective factors, consequences and ethical issues. Throughout this course, we use the Whare Tapa Wha model, Te Pae Māhutonga, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in order to understand well-being and health promotion. This subject is university approved and the credits gained can count towards university entrance requirements.

Year 11-13 Outdoor Education

The course is working towards achieving both Unit and Achievement standards. The unit standards tend to be practically base. This requires students to participate and attend all experiences in order to be successful. The main learning environments in this course include sea kayaking, tramping, indoor rock climbing, cycling, and bushcraft. The school is extremely well equipped with an 11m high indoor rock wall, over 30 mountain bikes, river and sea kayaks, and an outdoor swimming pool for the summer months. The school is well placed geographically. We are able to use a variety of the wonderful natural resources in the Horowhenua region such as the Tararua Maunga, Manawatu awa, and local bike tracks in Foxton. The school is extremely lucky to have highly qualified Outdoor Education teachers.