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Are you familiar with any needs assessment tools that evaluate quality health and physical education school programs. I have copies of broader school health checklists (CAHPERD, and Hastings Healthy Active School communities blueprint), however, they are more broad than we were thinking.
For a simplified version of a needs assessment, you could use the Key Components of a Quality Program (from the Ophea H&PE binders). The schools could identify which areas they are already doing well and which they could work more on.
Also have a look at the inventory and application form for the Active Schools program. With this resource, schools can identify what they are doing in each of the 6 areas A-C-T-I-V-E. The Active Schools resource binder provides suggestions and guidance re: ways of doing more activities in each of those areas if the school identifies it as an area where they need to improve. Back to Top Fewer and fewer kids have space in their schedule to take physical education. What can we do about declining numbers in HPE courses? - Find out about the needs and interests of your students. Do a questionnaire.
- Be creative in structuring the course – and focus courses – around the interests of students in your area.
- Promote your program and work to engage students by delivering a course that excites students about wanting to learn about improving their lifestyles and continuing to grow in a healthy and active way.
- Work with your administration, parent council, subject council.
Back to Top Where can I take an Additional Qualifications course in Health and Physical Education? - The Ontario College of Teachers promotes excellence in teaching by setting and maintaining standards for the teaching profession. For a listing of Health and Physical Education Additional Qualification (AP) courses offered through the Ontario College of Teachers, look at the list compiled on their website (www.oct.ca).
Back to Top How can I get a copy of the curriculum policy?
Here are the links to get copies of Ontario's Health and Physical Education curriculum policy.
Download a copy of the elementary H&PE Curriculum policy
Get all the Grades 9/10 H&PE curriculum
Get the Grades 11/12 H&PE curriculum
Get the Ontario Secondary Schools Grades 9-12 Program and Diploma Requirements document
Download the Program Planning and Assessment Policy, Grades 9-12
There are links to all of these curriculum policy documents – and other resources – on the H&PE “Links” page on Ophea.net.
For a link to a site which has all curriculum expectations, expectation codes for every subject area, go to: http://www.ocup.org/resources/#check Back to Top What information do you have about the “Balanced Day?”
The Balanced School Day is an alternative to the traditional day schedule of two 15 minute recesses and a one-hour lunch break. Typically, the Balanced School Day involves dividing the 300 minute instructional day into three 100-minute blocks of teaching/learning time, separated by two 45 minutes physical activity and nutrition breaks.
In Ontario, the concept started two years ago at Caledon East Public School in Peel Region. The idea caught on. Schools in the St. Clair Catholic Board, Hamilton-Wentworth, Simcoe County, Lambton-Kent and Halton piloted similar schedules and the results were positive enough that several school boards across the province are considering a re-structuring of traditional schedules.
Research suggests that a balanced schedule with extended nutrition and physical activity breaks helps make better use of instructional time and helps students to maintain focus by providing more concentrated time for learning. Schools that are participating in the Balanced School Day have reported increases in student concentration levels, academic performance, physical fitness, and a decrease in discipline problems. Schools found that less time was lost with changing and transitions as students were going outside for two breaks per day instead of three. With the two longer break periods (instead of one long and two short), more time was available for more intramural activity during the day. This was an advantage especially in rural schools where after school activities are not possible because of bussing. The longer breaks seem to provide enough time for significant physical activity but not enough time to move into a period where problems begin to arise on the schoolyard. The longer periods in class allowed for more blocking of time for literacy and numeracy. These findings from the schools are in keeping with research indicating that children perform better at school when they are eat healthy foods and are provided with a balanced program with opportunities for daily activity.
In September 2002, the Simcoe County District School Board began a pilot project and research testing of the balanced school day in 13 schools. The Simcoe County District Health Department partnered with the Simcoe County District School Board throughout the year and helped the board look at the impact on physical activity and healthy eating. Because of concerns about the change in recess times, schools were encouraged to integrate physical activity throughout the day. The Health Department hosted an Ophea workshop on Daily Vigorous Physical Activity. They also developed a newsletter called Kids Health Matters, which was designed specifically as a tool to educate parents about healthy eating issues for Balanced School Day schools.
Although there are pros and cons to the balanced school day, the data from Caledon East and initial data from the Simcoe pilot testing showed some interesting results. With the extended break times, students had more opportunity to pursue extracurricular and intramural activities. Some schools scheduled 30 minutes of physical education every day and others started doing activity breaks after the announcements twice a day. Schools started sending healthy eating and physical activity newsletters to parents encouraging parents to help keep kids active at home and in the community. One school even began monitoring students’ fitness levels. Some schools began talking about school nutrition and physical activity policies. In many ways, it increased awareness of physical activity and healthy eating issues in school communities.
With a Balance Day timetable, it is important to ensure that the “free play” is not construed as Physical Education. Ensuring that children and youth have the commitment and capacity to be physically active during the physical activity breaks will help to make the most of the new schedule. Programs such as Durham Region’s PROPS (Peers Running Organized Play Stations), can be used to engage students in an active way during the active breaks. Ophea and the Canadian Intramural Recreation Association have some great resources to support active playgrounds. While making sure that students have the knowledge and skills so that they can choose to be active during the breaks, ensuring that students have choice about their use of the unstructured time is also important.
The Balanced School Day provides a good opportunity to enhance parents’ understanding of the importance of physical activity for children and to reinforce the messages in Canada’s Guide to Physical Activity for Children and Youth.
Challenges of timetabling a Balanced Day include schedule juggling around half day classes like half-time teachers and JK/K classes, accommodating for children who wish to travel home during a break and ensuring contractual prep time for teachers. Some schools actually found it easier to timetable prep time and found that they were able to provide team planning opportunities for teachers.
Overall, there seem to be more positives than negatives. A Balanced Day timetable can be used to increase the focus on an active healthy school community. As a community promoting active healthy school experiences for students, we will need to continue to observe the effects of the Balanced Day, share challenges and success stories and work within the structure to promote and maintain quality health and physical education learning opportunities for all students.
What are the roots of the curriculum? How did it get developed in the way it did?
There was an Expert Advisory panel and a research group who wrote position papers which were the basis for the direction of the curriculum. Background research was commissioned. Dr. Andy Anderson from the University of Toronto wrote “Physical and Health Education – Secondary School Curriculum”. A paper entitled Physical and Health Education, Key Directions in Secondary Curriculum Development was produced in June 1997. The Ministry of Education produced a synthesis paper containing the key recommendations from all of the expert panels. For the elementary curriculum, Ophea's "Standards" document (Healthy Active Living Standards for Physical and Health Education in Ontario, Grades 1-9) that they had produced in 1997 provided the basis for much of the curriculum. Back to Top Can you clarify the ministry of education policy regarding the number of minutes students should have health and physical education and daily vigorous physical education?
The Ontario Curriculum does not provide specific time expectations for any subject area. With the recent provincial emphasis on literacy and numeracy, there is currently an expectation for a certain amount of "blocked" literacy time and that expectation is expected to come for numeracy also. On one hand, it would be good to have a ministry mandated number of minutes for health and physical education. On the other hand, it may be dangerous too push too hard for that in case the mandated number of minutes that is decided upon is inadequate. Some school boards have been making their own recommendations. There is a very good example from Thames Valley on Ophea.net. Look on the H&PE Resources and Materials page.
The Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum states that, “This curriculum requires that students participate in vigorous physical activity for a sustained period of time each day. The amount of time suggested is described in the expectations and varies from grades 1 to Grade 8.” (page 5) The amount of time required for vigorous activity depends on the students' ages and stage of development. The times required in the Ontario curriculum expectations for sustained aerobic activity are as follows:
Gr. 1 5 to 10 minutes
Gr. 2 5 to 10 minutes
Gr. 3 8 to 10 minutes
Gr. 4 10 to 15 minutes
Gr. 5 10 to 15 minutes
Gr. 6 10 to 15 minutes
Gr. 7 15 minutes minimum
Gr. 8 15 minutes minimum
Daily vigorous physical activity (DVPA) A is not the whole curriculum but it is an important part of the picture. The minutes described in the expectations for each grade are the ones that students need to be able to sustain. Providing opportunities for daily activity will help enable students to develop the fitness levels to meet those expectations. Ophea and several boards are working to provide teachers with resources to help them meet this requirement. Students need an opportunity to be vigorously active on a daily basis. The degree to which an activity is vigorous is directly related to its ability to raise the heart rate and maintain this increase for a sustained period of time. Vigorous physical activities are aerobic in nature, enhancing the health of the heart and lungs.
We are promoting and encouraging DVPA in Ontario because it can contribute to overall fitness and development of the commitment and capacity to lead active healthy lives.
The Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) advocates that all Canadian children participate in 150 minutes of physical education per week (i.e., 30 minutes per day) for every child from kindergarten through grade 12. Moreover, the Canadian Medical Association also passed a resolution in 1998 echoing CAHPERD's call for 30 minutes per day of compulsory physical education for every child. The challenge remains to translate this resolution into a daily reality in Canadian schools. CAHPERD’s statistics indicate that most Canadian schools average only 60 minutes of physical education per week. CAHPERD continues to work with provincial organizations to change these statistics, because it is documented that high-quality, school-based physical education can help promote healthier living and encourage a lifetime of active living. CAHPERD has an "Action kit" for QDPE. It includes information about making a difference re: policy. For more information, see http://www.cahperd.ca/eng/advocacy/index.cfm
Several school boards have put plans in place to support the curriculum policy. York Region DSB has developed an online resource for DVPA. This searchable database (and easy to use flip book) contains enough DVPA ideas for primary, junior and intermediate classes to do a different activity every day of the school year. To inquire about ordering, contact Contact their Learning Resources Centre 905-969-7170 ext.3373
Hastings and Prince Edward DSB developed a blueprint for physical activity complete with a self assessment tool for schools to assess their level of physical activity.
Ottawa-Carlton Catholic DSB underwent a large board-wide study to assess the status and impact of health and physical education. Download the report “Up and Running” from http://www.occdsb.on.ca/
On a community level, initiatives in some areas have potential to make a significant impact on school policy. Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sheela Basrur, has launched a Call to Action on Physical Activity. Please see Toronto Public Health's Web site for documents related to the "Call to Action on Physical Activity"
launched June 6, 2003 http://www.toronto.ca/health
Back to Top Where can I find information about the school year and provincial / national holidays?
From the Ministry of Education website Back to Top Should I be teaching gymnastics? What do I need to know?
Gymnastics is a vehicle through which many curriculum expectations can be achieved. Gymnastics - or movement education - is a great way to develop many of the stability expectations (under Fundamental Movement Skills). By developing these skills, students will learn how to land safely, control their bodies and participate safely in other activities. Gymnastics is an activity where students have the opportunity to learn things and try new things with their bodies that they may not have the opportunity to try in any other activity. It is an activity that helps to build confidence and competence in the students' ability to be aware of the strengths and limitations of their body. Gymnastics units also tend to give students much needed opportunities for strength (especially upper body strength) development. Gymnastics, unlike team sports, offers students the opportunity to participate in an individualized activity. Many students are not team oriented and enjoy the opportunity to participate as an individual. Gymnastics provides students with critical transferable skills that can be used in other areas such as the creative playground. It is important that children learn to jump and land safely, to balance, and to develop the upper body strength to hang and swing from overhead bars. Learning this skills in a controlled gymnastics setting, can contribute to safer play on the creative playground equipment during an unstructured recess setting.
Students can be given the opportunity to develop these skills through a wide range of activities. In the Ophea H&PE binders, there are lesson plans provided in Units 10-13 in grades 1,2,3, Units 12-14 in grades 4,5,6 and Unit 10 in grades 7 and 8. The overviews of each of these units provide some general considerations for both safety and good teaching practice. Enough options are provided in these lessons so that the teacher may provide opportunities for students to meet the expectations in a range of ways, ranging from a full gymnastics program with equipment to a basic program that provides opportunities for skill development using simple equipment like mats and benches.
Considerations for safety: -
Check that all gymnastics' equipment is in good repair and safe for use -
Maintain an atmosphere of discipline and control -
Be aware of physical limitations of students -
Set rules and routines to focus attention on safe instructional practice,(including rules regarding proper clothing and no jewelry) for each activity and to minimize risk. (see the Safety guidelines, Special Rules and Instructions section for each piece of equipment) -
Be aware of different supervision requirements for different activities (visual, on site/ in the area) -
Follow safety guidelines for mat specifications. -
Use caution (and mats) for any elevated, inverted skills -
Consider gym set up - e.g., ensure landing distances safe distances from walls -
Check safety guidelines for specifics re: spotting and pyramid building -
If the teacher is bringing in an outside person, I would check to ensure that he/she has N.C.C.P. certification of at least level 1 (gymnastics instructors aren't allowed to practice without this certification). With attention to safety and a correct tone set and maintained, teaching gymnastics and movement education is a safe and extremely valuable part of the Health and Physical Education program for students. Back to Top I’m looking for a definition for “Physical Health”. What does your organization say?
Thank you very much for your recent email. We don't have an official definition for "physical health" but I here are a couple of definitions from the Ontario Curriculum: Grades 1-8 for Health and Physical Education that was released by the Ontario Ministry of Education in 1998. -
active living- a way of life in which physical activity is valued anintegrated into daily life. -
physical fitness- A state of well-being that (a) allows people to perform daily activities with vigour; (b) reduces the risk of health problems related to lack of exercise; and (c) establishes a fitness base for participation in a variety of physical activities. The curriculum policy is available on the Government of Ontario web site: www.gov.on.ca. Also check out documents that are available from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care which are also accessible from the government web site.
I would also recommend that you contact the following Canadian organizations in your pursuit for definitions: Back to Top
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