Year 8 HPE Syllabus
Year 8
Year level description
In the early adolescence phase of schooling, students align with their peer group and begin to question established conventions, practices and values. Learning and teaching programs assist students to develop a broader and more comprehensive understanding of the contexts of their lives and the world in which they live.
Health and Physical Education provides opportunities for students to build on their prior learning. A major influence on students is the world around them, and during this time their peers become a key source of motivation and support when managing their health and wellbeing.
In Year 8, students develop skills and strategies to promote health, safety and wellbeing, including assertive responses and refusal skills, and apply them to a range of situations, including online environments. They investigate health-promotion activities that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of young people and continue to develop critical health literacy skills, including the ability to distinguish between credible and less credible sources of health information.
Students continue to broaden their repertoire of movement skills and knowledge of tactical thinking and apply these to an expanding array of physical activity contexts. They build on skills to analyse performance and describe the impact of regular participation on health, fitness and wellbeing. Students continue to reflect on, and refine, personal and social skills that support inclusive participation and fair play and contribute to positive team cohesion.
Year 8 Achievement standard
By the end of the year:
Health Education
Students identify skills and strategies to manage change, and promote all aspects of their own and others’ health. They make informed decisions, using assertive responses, and make contingency plans to avoid and prevent risks to health. Students identify the impact power and coercion can have on relationships and describe how these can be influenced by stereotypes.
Physical Education
Students perform a variety of individual movement skills and sequences demonstrating improved control, accuracy and efficiency in their performance. In various contexts, they implement a range of tactics to achieve an intended outcome. Students provide simple descriptions of how to measure heart rate and breathing rate in response to changes in physical activity. They implement or interpret verbal, physical or situational cues to appropriately respond to others when working in a group.
Content descriptions
Personal identity and change
Strategies to cope with and manage the impact of changes and transitions
WA8HEHPP1
For example:
- changing peer and family relationships
- the influence of values and beliefs on the development of identities
- accessing relevant health information and services
Ways in which changing feelings and attractions form part of developing sexual identities
WA8HEHPP2
For example:
- how health information supports an individual to effectively manage change as they grow older
Staying safe
Credible health information that can support people in a variety of situations
WA8HEHPS1
Reasons why young people choose to use or not use alcohol, drugs or other harmful substances, and strategies that could be used if someone is being encouraged to use them
WA8HEHPS2
Skills and strategies to promote physical and mental health, safety and wellbeing in various environments
WA8HEHPS3
For example:
- assertive responses
- stress management techniques
- refusal skills
- making informed choices
- contingency planning
- demonstrating basic first aid in medical circumstances, such as non-life-threatening bleeds, sprains and strains
- online environments (sharing intimate images or texts)
Strategies and skills to communicate assertively when seeking, giving or denying consent are explained and applied
WA8HEHPS4
For example:
- exploring assertive and respectful communication
- examining the nature of consent in different types of relationships
Healthy and active communities
Benefits to individuals and communities of valuing diversity and promoting inclusivity
WA8HEHPH1
For example:
- affirming diversity
- exploring how the traditions, foods and practices of different cultures enhance the wellbeing of the community
- challenging racism, homophobia, sexism and disability discrimination
- researching how stereotypes and prejudices have been challenged in various contexts
Health promotion initiatives which target relevant health, safety and wellbeing issues for young people and ways to manage them
WA8HEHPH2
Interacting with others
Strategies for managing the changing nature of peer and family relationships
WA8HEHPI1
Impacts of bullying and harassment on relationships, including online relationships
WA8HEHPI2
For example:
- psychological consequences, including decreased self-esteem and poor mental health
- social consequences, including negative attitudes to school and increased loneliness
Digital literacy
Role of power and coercion within relationships, and how these can be influenced by gender stereotypes
WA8HEHPI3
Personal, social and cultural factors that influence emotional responses and behaviour
WA8HEHPI4
For example:
- prior experience
- norms and expectations
- personal or cultural beliefs and attitudes
Movement skills
Movement skills and sequences within different physical activity contexts and settings with a focus on:
- increased efficiency in skill performance
- control of balance and stability
WA8HEPMM1
Selection of strategic and tactical skills in the manipulation of effort, space, time, objects and people in a variety of movement contexts
WA8HEPMM2
Physical activities to enhance health, fitness and wellbeing, including moving in natural environments
WA8HEPMM3
Understanding movement
Interpersonal skills
Verbal, physical and situational cues to identify and appropriately respond to the feelings and motives of others when working in a team or group
WA8HEPMI1
Modification of rules, equipment or scoring systems to allow for fair play, safety and inclusion of all participants
WA8HEPMI2