CONTENTSOn this page
Draft curriculum content
This page is based on the draft Year 7 content for Health and Physical Education. For more information, see the draft curriculum.
In Year 7, your child will learn about changes during puberty and how to manage them through self-care, including hygiene, nutrition, and avoiding harmful substances, as well as self-regulation.
They develop communication strategies to build healthy relationships and stay safe, both in person and online, while learning to recognise and challenge stereotypes. They will also explore choreographed movement, like haka and dance; practise techniques and tactics in sports and athletics; and learn the benefits of outdoor activities and how to manage risks safely.
Health education#
Bodies | Minds#
With your child, you could:
- read the School Journal story 'The Pink Umbrella' or the poem 'The Embarrassment Expert', and discuss ways to manage and overcome embarrassing situations, explain that it’s best to face the situation and avoid saying negative things to yourself
- help them understand how advertising encourages people to buy products, ask if they think it’s fair to children that advertisers do this
- discuss what your child thinks stress is, what makes them feel stressed, and what helps them manage stress, make a list of ways to ‘destress’ and display it in the kitchen so everyone can read it and add further ideas
- visit the Vaping Facts website, take the quiz together, and discuss any questions that arise.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child’s understanding of what helps them to care for their health. For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- recognise that the changes that take place during puberty affect sleep, relationships, emotions, as well as physical growth, and that these changes are different for different people
- recognise the importance of a varied and balanced diet
- explain what affects food choices for different people, for example, cultural traditions, social setting, and advertising
- recognise the way major life changes and stress affect emotions and behaviour, for example, moving, changing school
- describe the skills necessary to manage change and resist pressure to use alcohol and other drugs; for example, self-awareness, help-seeking.
Relationships#
With your child, you could:
- make a map of all the people they can ask for support, family, neighbours, people at school, people in the community, and include an example of the kind of support they might ask them for, and pin it on their bedroom wall
- discuss tricky situations around consent, for example:
- On one occasion, you gave consent to borrow a personal possession. Now, someone else wants to borrow it. Do you have to give consent to this second person just because you gave it to the first person?
- visit the Media Literacy module on the Netsafe website, and work your way through the module with your child to see who learns the most
- choose a celebrity your child likes and often mentions, preferably, this will be a person who is sometimes stereotyped because of what they look like, their interests, how they behave, or what they do and ask:
- “Do you think this stereotyping is fair to the person?”
- “How might being stereotyped affect the way the person thinks and feels about themselves?”
- “Do you think someone who wasn’t famous would think or feel any differently if they were stereotyped like this? Why, or why not?”
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on what your child needs to understand and do to maintain healthy relationships and stay safe. For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- practise using decision-making skills and displaying empathy in different contexts; for example, in discussion and through roleplay
- explore the impact of role models on people’s behaviour, values, and choices
- recognise and respect people's boundaries and their right to change their mind about consent
- respect that in te ao Māori, heads are considered tapu and consent is required before touching someone’s head
- recognise that being safe online means using social media and the internet in responsible ways to avoid seeing more harmful content; for example, adjusting privacy settings, reporting harmful content, and maintaining awareness of the impact of algorithms
- discuss how stereotyping is unfair and how it affects people’s identity and sense of themselves.
Physical education#
Movement skills#
With your child, you could:
- watch sports on TV, discuss the tactics you see and whether the game was fair and safe, and ask your child to explain their reasons
- consider the rules when playing games in the park, and whether they are fair, and try making up new rules
- design a fitness programme together, discuss the importance of warm-up and cool-down activities, keep a record of times, distances, and other targets, and review the progress over time
- have a balance challenge as a family "Who can hold a pose the longest?" and talk about the muscles you use when balancing in different poses.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on what your child needs to understand and take part in invasion games (like hockey and netball), athletics, and choreographed movement (like kapa haka and parkour). For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- recognise the importance of safety and fairness and keep to the rules of participation
- prepare for physical activities by taking part in appropriate warm-up and training activities
- make tactical decisions that are based on an understanding of the principles of the game
- use observations and statistics to identify areas for improvement
- choreograph sequences of movement that combine balance, strength and flexibility
- discuss the use of different techniques to improve performance in athletic events.
Outdoor education#
With your child, you could:
- encourage your child to take ownership of their preparations before any outing by asking them to:
- identify three things that could go wrong
- suggest ways of preventing these things from happening
- suggest what to do if one of these things does go wrong
- have your child lay out their gear first when packing for an overnight stay, ask them to explain why they packed each item, and talk about what risk they might be packing each item for; for example, footwear for rough terrain, a waterproof jacket for rain, and a torch to see in the dark
- read the School Journal article, “Ayda Bang and the William Pike Challenge”. Talk about how Ayda got out of these challenges and whether they’d like to try something similar.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on what your child needs to safely enjoy outdoor activities. For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- recognise when risks change, for example, due to changes in the weather
- consider group capabilities and needs
- make informed decisions to keep them and others safe in the outdoors.
