Cross-curriculum Priorities

The cross-curriculum priorities address the contemporary issues that students face in a globalised world. Teachers may find opportunities to incorporate the priorities into the teaching and learning program for Health and Physical Education. The cross-curriculum priorities are not assessed unless they are identified within the core content.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Across the Western Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures priority provides opportunities for students to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the world's oldest continuous living cultures. This priority provides important and engaging contexts for exploring personal, community and group identities. In doing so, it builds understanding about differences and commonalities in systems of knowledge and beliefs.

The curriculum enables the students to explore the importance of family and kinship structures for maintaining and promoting health, safety and wellbeing within their community and the wider community.

Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia

Across the Western Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education, the priority of Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia provides opportunities for students to explore the synergy between Asia and Australia in the areas of health and physical activity. An understanding of the engagement between Australia and Asia underpins the capacity of students to be active and informed citizens.

The curriculum enables students to appreciate and engage with diverse cultures, traditions and belief systems of the Asia region through the development of communication and interpersonal skills that reflect cultural understanding, empathy and respect. Students examine the meaning of health and the mind–body–spirit connection across the cultures of the Asia region through wellness practices. These include physical activity and traditions of medicine and healthcare.

Sustainability

Across the Western Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education, students explore how they connect and interact with natural, managed and built environments, and with people in different social groups within their social networks and wider communities. They consider how these connections and interactions within systems play an important role in promoting, supporting and sustaining the wellbeing of individuals, the community and the environment as a whole, now and into the future.

The curriculum enables students to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between the health and wellbeing of the individual and the environment. They develop this understanding through a range of activities, including learning in, and about, the outdoors; the creation of spaces for outdoor learning; active outdoor recreation; and growing, sourcing and choosing food products. As such, they will gain a capacity to advocate and act for a sustainable future.