Grade 7 — Health and Physical Education
The Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum helps students learn the skills and knowledge they need to lead healthy, active lives and make healthy and safe choices.
There are four parts to the curriculum:
- Healthy Living
- Active Living
- Movement Competence
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills.
The learning for each is summarized below along with some things you can do help to support your child's learning.
Healthy Living (including Mental Health Literacy)
Students learn how to solve problems, make decisions and set goals that are directly related to their own health and well-being. As they explore health concepts and learn how to make healthy choices, students make connections between themselves and the world around them. While mental health literacy is a distinct topic, students learn how mental health is connected to overall health across this entire section and the whole HPE curriculum.
| Area of Focus | What Students Learn About |
|---|---|
| Healthy eating |
Eating patterns and health problems Personal, external factors in food choices |
| Personal safety and injury prevention |
Benefits and dangers — technology (for example, online safety, sexting) Impact — of bullying / harassment, including bullying based on sexual orientation (homophobia) |
| Substance use, addictions and related behaviours |
Mental health, problematic substance use, including cannabis Healthy body image, problematic substance use Implications of substance use, addictions and related behaviours (for example, being online too much, or viewing pornography) |
| Human development and sexual health |
Delaying sexual activity; consent, communication Preventing sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) and pregnancy (for example, abstinence, contraception, condom use) Sexual health and decision making Relationship changes (for example, with family, peers, others) at puberty |
| Mental health literacy | Mental health, mental illness |
Active Living
Through active participation, students build a foundation for lifelong healthy active living while learning what makes physical activity enjoyable.
| Area of Focus | What Students Learn About |
|---|---|
| Active participation |
Participation in a variety of activities Enjoyment of activity (in diverse indoor/outdoor activities) Factors that motivate or challenge daily physical activity participation |
| Physical fitness |
Daily physical activity — moderate to vigorous activity, 20 minutes per day, including warm-up and cool down Factors affecting fitness; application of training principles Assessment and monitoring of health-related fitness Developing a fitness plan to meet a fitness goal |
| Safety |
Behaviours and procedures that maximize safety of self and others and lessen the risk of concussion Procedures for anticipating and responding to outdoor hazards, including concussions |
Movement Competence
Through exploration and participation in a variety of activities, students develop skills, strategies and tactics for moving while building confidence in their own physical abilities.
| Area of Focus | What Students Learn About |
|---|---|
| Movement skills and concepts |
Transitioning from one balance position to another — weight transfers, rotations, with others and with equipment Sending (for example, throwing), receiving (for example, catching), and retaining (for example, controlling) objects in relation to:
Phases of movement (for example, getting ready, executing and following through) |
| Movement strategies |
Understanding the rules and practising the skills needed to participate in a variety of physical activities Identifying common features and strategies of various physical activities and using tactics to increase success (for example, fast transitions from offence to defense in territory games) |
Social-Emotional Learning Skills (taught across the HPE curriculum)
This new section of the curriculum helps students foster their own overall health and well-being, positive mental health, resilience and ability to learn and thrive. Students develop social-emotional learning skills to help them with identifying and managing emotions, coping with stress, having positive motivation, building relationships, deepening their sense of self and thinking critically and creatively.
Students apply these everyday skills as part of their learning across the other three parts of the curriculum, and in their experiences at school, at home and in the community.
| Skills in | Examples of What Students Learn to Do |
|---|---|
| Healthy Living |
Describe how to access various sources of support when dealing with mental health challenges or issues related to substance use [coping with stress] Explain how someone might have a mental illness but can still be mentally healthy [thinking critically] |
| Active Living |
Describe the role models that may have influenced some of their choices with respect to physical activity [thinking critically] Make adjustments to activities that will allow all group members to be included and to enjoy participating [building relationships] |
| Movement Competence |
When working on a challenging skill such as a weight transfer with rotation — like a cartwheel — explain how breaking down the skill into parts can help build awareness of what they need to work on to improve it [sense of self] Demonstrate how to refine movements by adjusting body position when performing a skill [thinking critically] |
Supporting your child's learning
Parents and schools both have important roles in supporting student learning and well-being. Here are some ways to help:
- Involve your child with planning and preparing meals. Enjoy food together whenever possible.
- Seek regular opportunities to talk with your child about protecting their information and privacy online.
- Be aware of words used when talking about mental illness or mental health problems; try to use positive and supportive language.
- Balance screen time and time being active.
- Develop healthy and physically active routines.