02 Sep 2020
Health and Physical Education (HPE) Day is taking place on the 2nd of September this year and is a day to recognise the importance and benefits of physical education in our schools.
The Primary HPE network was created to provide teachers from across the Education Directorate, with a forum to discuss learning, teaching, assessing and reporting in the Health and Physical Education learning area.
This year due to social distancing and the cancellation of some sports carnivals and events, PE teachers have had to get creative in the way that they offer physical education to students.
“In recognition of the HPE day, I put a call out to network members to submit short education videos of their favourite physical activities” said Jake Naylor, Assistant Director of PE and Sport at the Education Directorate and founder of the Primary HPE network.
School teachers have responded, by sharing resources and videos for a variety of traditional sports, icebreakers, indigenous games and inclusive activities that all students can participate in. These can be accessed by other teachers in the HPE network to share with their classes on HPE Day.
Daniel Boyle, a PE teacher at Evatt Primary School, is internationally recognised in a sport called ‘foot bag’ more commonly known as hacky sack. In an effort to encourage students to try this portable and high energy activity, he created an instructional video for teachers to use with their class.
“I put together a few basic tricks, with different kicks and different surfaces. It’s really aimed at someone who’s never done it before and any teacher could use this resource, especially on a rainy day,” said Daniel.
The benefits of physical education are incredibly important for primary age students, supporting their overall development, health and wellbeing.
“In physical education we’ve been working on teaching the students new skills and different games that they may not have played before. This year we haven’t had the sports and athletics carnivals, so we’re trying to replicate bits and pieces of that in the PE classes,” said Daniel.
Jonathon Tucker, a PE Teacher from Charles Conder Primary school, has also created aerobics instructional videos for the network. In these, Jonathon expertly guides students through a series of fun activities while explaining how they meet the outcomes of the Australian Curriculum. Jonathon has additionally used these to successfully prepare his kindergarten students to take part in Tennis ACT coaching clinics.
HPE Day can be celebrated in a number of ways through a wide variety of activities. More information about health and physical education for students and suggestions for activities can be found on the National HPE Day website
.