Curriculum

The Western Australian Curriculum is in place to guide teachers in the learning areas that are to be taught specific to that year group. It supports educators in teaching the curriculum, developing assessments and offers support. The Health and Physical Education section of the curriculum is taught from Pre-Primary through to Year 10.

Developing healthy habits and making healthy lifestyle choices are introduced more deeply into the Health and Physical Education curriculum later on in the schooling years, due to young students being unable to completely grasp the concept. From pre-primary, the curriculum builds their knowledge, to give them the ability to make better choices and understand the affects of bad choices, ultimately giving them the best foundation as they enter the more vulnerable life stages of puberty, pre-teen/teen, and peer/social pressures.

Creating healthy habits, learning preventative practices and, understanding nutrition (SCASA, 2014) is an important part of a child’s education and development. Students can develop unhealthy habits and poor nutrition from a young age and this is predominantly through a range of influences including; parents, guardians, friends, television, and social media. These influences can make an impact from early on in a child's life, so it's imperatitve that the educators in their lives encourage healthy choices and teach them why it is important to live a healthy lifestyle. A child will not know any different, if not taught otherwise and this could potentially lead to future poor health. It is the role of an educator to correct this and give their students the opportunity for best the possible outlook for their life.

Following the Australian Health and Physical Education Curriculum (specfically ACARA and SCSA), students will learn skills and techniques on how to remove themselves from bad situations and prevent bad habits forming in their life. Students may not be aware that having takeaway five nights a week is a bad habit and through teaching them the about nutrition and how to create good healthy eating habits, it will give them the ability to make better choices based on what is available to them.

Guided by their teachers, students will work their way through the curriculum each year learning more about creating healthy habits, good nutrition and learning preventative practices to create a healthy lifestyle (SCASA,2014).

For this resource Year 7's will be the main target group. Year 7 is a crucial year in an individual's life as it is the start of high school, which brings with it a variety of pressures, different from primary school. This resource will see the students work through the Personal, Social and Community Health strand with a focus on the sub strand, Being Healthy, Safe and Active as it has a focus on creating healthy habits, learning preventive practices, and learning about nutrition. However, all three sub strands Being Healthy Safe and Active, Communicating and Interacting for Health and Wellbeing, and Contributing to Healthy and Active Communities are all important parts that make up the curriculum. The main curriculum that this resources addresses is ACPPS073, ACPP076, ACPP077, ACPMP083 (see below for further explanation and elaborations).

Targeting Year 7 Students

Students start learning about healthy food and habits in their first years of school, including eating healthy food and staying hydrated. Students will continue to learn in more depth, with the intention of creating healthy habits all the way through their schooling years and beyond. By the time they reach Year 7 they should have a clear understanding of what healthy food is and how to identify healthy food options for themselves. Students should have a clear understanding of how to improve nutritional value in meals and compare food labels (SCASA, 2014).

The section of the Year 7 curriculum that this resource focuses on is from the Personal, Social and Community Health (PSCH) strand. This 'Creating Healthy Habits' resource covers multiple components of the Year 7 Physical and Health Education Curriculum.

1. The descriptor ACPPS073 discusses learning strategies to help students make informed choices to promote health, safety and wellbeing, with the elaboration of 'researching nutritious meals that offer value for money'.

2. The Australian curriculum requires Year 7 students to learn how to evaluate health information and communicate their own and others' health concerns (ACPP076). The elaborations of ACPP076 are; proposing ways to support others who are going through a challenging time, and developing health literacy skills while exploring and evaluating online health information that is aimed at assisting young people to address health issues. Through discussion about eating disorders or other health-related issues this resource covers this descriptor.

3. Another curriculum component covered is the descriptor ACPPS077, which covers learning preventative health practises for young people to help avoid and manage risk. An elaboration of this, specific to this resource is, the adoption of the Australia Dietary Guidelines for healthy food choices and serving sizes.

4. Descriptor ACPMP083 examines the idea of participating in physical activities that help to develop health and skill-related fitness components, and create and monitor personal fitness plans. The elaboration goes on to discuss performing physical activities that improve health and skill-related components of fitness and analysing how they are developed through these activities. In the latter part of the 'Creating Healthy Habits' program, the focus is placed on 'exercise'. The benefits (combined with nutrition) and different types of exercises, as well as the notion of 'mental fitness' is covered.

Over the course of this resource students will work through these guidelines, developing their skills and knowledge so they can ultimately make informed decisions on the food they are consuming and how their nutrition can affect both their mental and physical health. By the end of this course students should have enough knowledge to confidently create a weekly meal that is both nutritious and has value for money, whilst subsequently can identify healthy snack and lunch options. Students should also be able to follow the Australian guide to healthy eating to help inform them of the right choices (ACARA, Scootle).

Year 7s are entering a crucial time in their life as they face their first year of high school and naturally with that comes new pressures. They will have new expectations on their schoolwork, grades, and the social aspect of high school. Making new friends, dealing with peer pressure, body image and puberty are just a few factors that can affect their healthy eating and can potentially lead to creating unhealthy habits. The ultimate goal of this resource is to provide teachers with a simple but effective illustration of how educators can equip their students with information that encourages and empowers students to make good choices that lead to a healthy lifestyle.