The Personal Development, Health and Physical Education 7–10 (2024) Syllabus:

• has been streamlined through a reduction in outcomes and content, allowing teachers to focus on essential learning
• divides content into five interrelated focus areas
  • Movement skills and strategies
  • Health and wellbeing through physical activity
  • Safe, active and healthy lifestyle choices
  • Respectful relationships
  • Identity, belonging and change
• includes protocols for collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and engaging with Cultural and heritage works
• has self-management, interpersonal and movement skills integrated throughout the content
• includes strengthened age-appropriate consent and respectful relationships content
• includes a greater focus on student safety in online and offline environments
• has Life Skills outcomes mapped to the Stage 4 and 5 outcomes to facilitate integrated delivery.

Prior to implementing the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education 7–10 (2024) Syllabus, leaders will need to consider the following:

• the complexities for staff working with 2 syllabuses to teach Personal Development, Health and Physical Education 7–10 and the complexities of a staggered implementation structure
• syllabus differences include structure, language and pedagogy
• awareness of the Controversial Issues in Schools policy and procedures, which is essential in teaching various aspects of personal development, health and physical education
• building teacher understanding about working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content when designing and delivering personal development, health and physical education learning activities and assessment
• supporting teachers’ understanding of the principles of inclusive education, adjustments and access to the curriculum for all learners
• building teacher understanding of how subject-specific writing is defined in personal development, health and physical education
• resource and budget implications including
  • allocating time for staff to engage with syllabus expectations and build their skills and understanding to effectively teach and plan for syllabus requirements across 7–10 to implement in 2027
  • determining what resources are currently available to address new course requirements and purchasing additional resources to address areas of need
  • equipment that enhances learning and supports all students to access the curriculum, such as screen readers, audio-visual material and other inclusive learning tools and sporting equipment
• familiarisation with the digital curriculum platform to ensure the syllabus is programmed, taught and assessed as required
• all decisions about curriculum options for students with a disability should be made through the collaborative curriculum planning process
• prior to determining whether a student should access Life Skills outcomes and content, consider other ways of helping the student to engage with regular course outcomes. This may include a range of adjustments to teaching, learning and assessment activities. If the adjustments do not provide the student with sufficient access to some or all outcomes in Stages 4 to 6, a decision to access Life Skills outcomes and content in one or more courses might be appropriate
• some students with disability may find Years 7 to 10 courses based on Life Skills outcomes and content are the most appropriate options to follow for their RoSA.

The Personal Development, Health and Physical Education 7–10 Syllabus (2024) is shaped by the PDHPE propositions and based on evidence summarised in the Bibliography: PDHPE 7–10 published by NESA within NESA's Teaching and learning support. The evidence highlights that:

• writing instruction should be a priority and students should be given the opportunity to write frequently for a range of meaningful audiences and purposes
• developing health literacy in young people is essential for empowering them to make positive, informed health choices to enhance their own and others’ safety, health and wellbeing
• education plays an important role in promoting mental health and wellbeing in children
• schools play a critical role in educating students about relationships in a positive, strengths-based way
• education provides an opportunity for children and young people to develop and reflect on knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that relate to respect, inclusion and power
• online safety education should be empowering, build resilience and effect positive culture change, while also promoting the development of respectful relationships and safe and appropriate long-term behaviours
• ensuring that all children in Australia can access age-appropriate consent and respectful relationships education is important for ending gender-based violence
• it is important to recognise that different groups of young people may be at different places and stages in their understanding of consent, gender, sex, dating and relationships; planning and preparing for this is an important element of successful consent education
• the goal of respectful relationships and consent education is to support young people to experience healthy sexual relationships and reduce rates of sexual violence
  • activities should focus on interactive and participatory activities where possible
• sex and relationship education should ensure representation of diversity of bodies, sexual relationships, orientations and genders
• drug education aims to promote resilience, and build knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to enable children and young people to make responsible, healthy and safe choices
• participating in regular physical activity and limiting the amount of time being sedentary can have significant health benefits including reducing the risk of chronic conditions and other disease risk factors such as overweight and obesity, and also improving social and emotional health and wellbeing
• physical literacy is embedded throughout the 7–10 PDHPE syllabus
  • quality physical education programs foster the development of physical literacy for all children and young people
• physical literacy involves holistic lifelong learning through movement and physical activity, it delivers physical, psychological, social and cognitive health and wellbeing benefits.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education 7–10 Syllabus (2024) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024.

Knowledge of the syllabus and professional learning needs

• To what extent do staff understand the syllabus and the evidence underpinning the new syllabus?
• How will the new syllabus affect classroom practice? What is in place to support and evaluate this practice?
• What school practices and systems are in place to support teacher professional learning?
• How are these evaluated to maximise support for teachers?

Collaborative planning and development

• Which communities of practice does the school collaborate with to enhance teacher curriculum knowledge and pedagogy?
• Do staff have the skills and understanding to collaboratively undertake syllabus implementation? What explicit systems are in place to foster collaboration?

Resourcing and support

• What structures are in place for tailored professional support for all staff to strengthen curriculum implementation? What else might be required for this syllabus?
• What resources are required to commence syllabus implementation and meet planning, programming, assessing, and reporting requirements?
• Have you developed school-based practices that support the delivery of PDHPE in line with the Controversial issues in schools policy?

Ongoing evaluation and refinement

How will the school’s plan for curriculum implementation be evaluated? How might this evaluation inform the implementation of future syllabuses?

• Planning, programming and assessing PDHPE 7–10
• Department of Education Controversial issues in schools policy
• NESA Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Syllabus (2024) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024
• NESA PDHPE Teaching and learning support (2024)
  • NESA Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) 7–10 (2024): Propositions