At The Heritage School, we believe that Physical Education is a significant indicator of robustness of spirit. The lessons learnt on playfields are far more enduring than those learnt in classrooms. Relying on the NASPE Standards for Physical Education, we believe in educating students through physical activities on the basis of the following criteria:
Physical demonstration of motor skills and movement patterns.
Cognition and understandings about movement concepts, strategies and tactics of the application and learning of these skills.
Participation in physical fitness activities on a regular basis during school as well as beyond.
Understanding, maintaining and developing fitness concepts, leading to a health enhancing lifestyle.
Development of responsible personal and social behaviour that respects self and others in physical activity settings.
Valuing physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.
Age appropriateness of activities and expectations drive the vertically aligned curriculum.
Education through physical experiences is the guiding philosophy behind all activities held in each Physical Education class. The goal is to help students pick up lifetime skills such as inclusiveness, attentiveness, respect, authenticity, excellence, working on a team, conflict resolution, sharing, handling success and failure, decision making, appreciation, and the like through physical education activities. Students not only experience these during activities, but are actually taught these skills through problem solving activities, debriefing on a daily basis, assessments based on these philosophies, and age appropriate levels of intervention by trained professionals.
Grades 1 through 3 undergo 135 minutes of Physical Education in the six-day cycle; Grades 4 and 5 undergo 300 minutes of Physical Education in the six-day cycle; Grades 6 through 8 do 180 minutes; Grades 9 and 10 do 120 minutes while Grades 11 and 12 come for 120 minutes of Physical Education in the six-day cycle.
A typical Physical Education class has a warm-up/fitness component, followed by a phase of working on a skill, and ending up with a lead-up or classic game.Through the year, Grades 1 through 3 work on improving their gross motor skills, as well as improving their coordination, balance, and manipulative techniques through units of walk/jog/run,
jumping, throwing/catching, hitting (with or without equipment), & manipulating an object (dribbling, etc.). Gymnastics is the base for picking up kinesthetic sense.
Grades 4 through 10 rotate through nine physical activity units through the year that are designed to expose them to different skills in the nine different activities including swimming and track & field. Grades 4 and 5 have the addition of Gymnastics as part of their curriculum. This would lay the basis for teaching lifetime skills like team building and establishing social norms in groups. Grades 11 and 12 rotate through five different activities through the year, where they hone the skills that they have picked up through the years in areas of their own interests, as well as improve their knowledge about various aspects in physical education.