Physical Education
/ Health
PDE Standards for PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Philosophy
The health and physical education
program in the West Chester Area School District is designed
to motivate and encourage
active participation in developing life skills for optimal
mental, social, and physical health.
Physical Education
Grade K-5
The elementary physical education program introduces students
to the concept of learning and controlling movement and
appreciating, through experience, the way the body moves
and can be kept healthy through movement. Refining skills
and creating increasingly complex movement sequences is
the goal of the program. Integrating these skills into
activities that lead to team and individual sports and
games is the intent in the later grades. Additionally,
the students are introduced to a variety of activities
that involve rhythmics, problem solving, cooperation, and
teamwork.
Grades 6-8
In the middle school, the students are involved with a more
complex application of movements and manipulation of equipment.
The teaching of physical fitness is also emphasized and
the adventure education program includes indoor rock climbing.
Team sports are an integral part of the program.
Grade 9
Ninth grade students take a mandatory health/physical education
course entitled Health Fitness. Health Fitness combines
the requirements for the two subject areas into one course
that focuses on the understanding, creation and design
of a personalized physical fitness program that meets the
needs of the individual.
Grades 10-12
In these last years, the goal of the program is to help the
students understand the concepts and activities that can
help them lead an active lifestyle after they leave high
school. The students are exposed to an increasingly higher
level of individual activities that include golf, tennis,
aerobic dance and activities, weight training, ultimate
Frisbee, badminton and pickleball, yoga, and indoor climbing.
Health
Grades K-5
At the elementary level, health instruction is completed
by the classroom teacher. The focus of the program is to
introduce the students to health concerns and issues that
are associated with their age level. Issues such as nutrition,
substance abuse, injury prevention and safety, and conflict
resolution are sequenced throughout the years. In the later
grades, students are also taught about the body systems
and prevention of disease. From grades 3 through 6 the
subject of human sexuality is taught at age-appropriate
levels.
Grades 6-8
The middle school program centers around relationships and
self-esteem with the understanding that the middle school
years are a time when students are working on creating
an identity. Other topics include family relationships,
substance abuse, nutrition and body image, violence, and
stress.
Grade 10
The last health class in the district attempts to prepare
students to make quality, independent decisions about their
health and well-being. With key issues facing the young
people of today, the health program focuses on individual
responsibility in the area of decision making as it relates
to peer relationships, nutrition, substance abuse, and
anatomy and reproduction.
