Personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE) is mandatory from Kindergarten to Year 10.
According to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), students are expected to participate in PDHPE for 300 hours per year in Years 7 to 10.
PDHPE provides students with opportunities to explore issues that are likely to impact on the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others – now and in the future. Students also participate in challenging and enjoyable physical activity, improving their capacity to move with skill and confidence.
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) develops the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes important for students to take positive action to protect and enhance their own and others' health, safety and wellbeing in varied and changing contexts. Physical education is fundamental to the acqisition of movement skills and concepts to enable students to participate in a range of physical activities - confidently, competently and creatively.
Through PDHPE, students develop self-management, interpersonal and movement skills to help them become empowerd, self-confident and socially responsible citizens. Students learn in movement, about movement and through movement and are given opportunities to apply and adapt their skills across multiple contexts. The learning experiences in PDHPE provide students with a foundation to actively contribute to, and advocate for, the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others in the community and beyond school.
The PDHPE K-10 syllabus is shaped by five propositions, organised into three content strands, with a focus on three PDHPE skill domains. The following diagram provides an Illustrative representation of these elements and their relationship.
Along with the mandatory 7-10 PDHPE course, there are various elective pathways as outlined below:
An exciting change in Stage 6 has been the shift from PDHPE to Health and Movement Science (HMS), with the first Year 11 HMS class taught in 2025.
Health and Movement Science builds on the foundational knowledge, understading and skills developed in the PDHPE K - 10 course. This sylabus is underpinned by the five propositions-
The course provides opportunities to explore areas of interest in greater depth and apply health and movement concepts to variouos contexts and groups. To equip students to navigate the dynamic nature of health and movement, emphasis is given to developing skills of collaboration, analysis, communication, creative thinking, problem-solving and research.
