Personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE) is mandatory from Kindergarten to Year 10.
According to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), students are expected to participate in PDHPE for between 1.5 and 2.5 hours per week in Kindergarten to Year 6.
PDHPE provides students with opportunities to explore issues that are likely to impact on the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others – now and in the future. Students also participate in challenging and enjoyable physical activity, improving their capacity to move with skill and confidence.
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) develops the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes important for students to take positive action to protect and enhance their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing in varied and changing contexts. Physical education is fundamental to the acquisition of movement skills and concepts to enable students to participate in a range of physical activities – confidently, competently and creatively.
The study of PDHPE provides students with the opportunity to enhance and develop resilience and connectedness and learn to interact respectfully with others. Through PDHPE students develop the skills to research, apply, appraise and critically analyse health and movement concepts in order to maintain and improve their health, safety, wellbeing and participation in physical activity. Students are provided with opportunities to learn to critique and challenge assumptions, attitudes, behaviours and stereotypes and evaluate a range of health-related sources, services and organisations. They develop a commitment to the qualities and characteristics that promote and develop empathy, resilience, respectful relationships, inclusivity and social justice. Students practise, develop and refine the physical, cognitive, social and emotional skills that are important for engaging in movement and leading a healthy, safe and physically active life.
Learning in PDHPE reflects the dynamic nature of health, safety, wellbeing and participation in physical activity in the context of a diverse and rapidly changing society. It addresses health and physical activity concepts of importance to students and highlights the influences that contextual factors have on personal values, attitudes and behaviours. PDHPE provides students with an experiential curriculum that is contemporary, relevant, challenging and physically active. The syllabus is designed to give all schools flexibility to treat sensitive issues in a manner reflective of their own context and ethos.
Through PDHPE, students develop self-management, interpersonal and movement skills to help them become empowered, self-confident and socially responsible citizens. Students learn in movement, about movement and through movement and are given opportunities to apply and adapt their skills across multiple contexts. The learning experiences in PDHPE provide students with a foundation to actively contribute to, and advocate for, the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others in the community and beyond school.