Course Outline
EDU779 Teaching HPE in Primary School
Course Coordinator:Gemma Jorin (gjorin@usc.edu.au) School:School of Education and Tertiary Access
2026Trimester 2
UniSC Sunshine CoastUniSC Moreton Bay |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
What is this course about?
Description
In this course, you will use a critical lens to analyse literature, programs and principles that underpin current Health and Physical Education (HPE) issues and initiatives, and use this analysis to plan for implementation. Through the application of advanced technical skills, you will design, plan and reflect on teaching HPE in specific primary school contexts. You will also learn to create learning experiences and solutions that ensure environments are safe and inclusive, and that encourage parental, school and wider community engagement to support the primary school learner.
How will this course be delivered?
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – You are required to engage and interact with asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas modules, course readings and required texts. | 2hrs | Week 2 | 5 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – The tutorial for this course is synchronous and involves on-campus engagement and application of learning materials. This course will also involve participation in physical activities to explore the implementation of the Australian Curriculum for HPE. | 2hrs | Week 2 | 5 times |
Course Topics
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Principles underpinning HPE
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HPE topics and Initiatives in the primary school environment
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Socially constructed health initiates for community engagement
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Pedagogies for student engagement in HPE initiatives
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Australian Curriculum: HPE and General Capabilities
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Lesson planning and risk management in HPE
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Motor skill development for specific movement contexts
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Inclusive approaches to HPE
What level is this course?
700 Level (Specialised)
What is the unit value of this course?
6 units
How does this course contribute to my learning?
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Mapping Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | Professional Standard Mapping * Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 1 | Synthesise knowledge and understanding of the HPE curriculum, theory, pedagogy and practice demonstrating academic literacies. |
Creative and critical thinker Engaged |
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.3, 7.1, 7.2 |
| 2 | Critically analyse initiatives that support health issues in primary education and propose socially constructed approaches to encourage authentic engagement from the whole school community. |
Creative and critical thinker Empowered |
3.7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 |
| 3 | Design, plan, teach and reflect on lesson sequences demonstrating mastery of age appropriate content, differentiated approaches and inclusive practices. |
Creative and critical thinker Empowered |
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.7, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 5.1 |
| 4 | Interpret policy, determine risk and compose risk management assessment documentation. |
Knowledgeable Ethical |
3.4, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 7.1, 7.2 |
| 5 | Develop opportunities for the transfer of fundamental motor skills into movement contexts. |
Knowledgeable Engaged |
1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 |
* Competencies by Professional Body
| CODE | COMPETENCY |
| Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 1.1 | Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning. |
| 1.2 | Understand how students learn: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching. |
| 1.3 | Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds: Demonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. |
| 1.4 | Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. |
| 1.5 | Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities. |
| 1.6 | Strategies to support full participation of students with disability: Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of legislative requirements and teaching strategies that support participation and learning of students with disability. |
| 2.1 | Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area |
| 2.2 | Content selection and organisation: Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence. |
| 2.3 | Curriculum, assessment and reporting: Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans. |
| 2.4 | Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians: Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages. |
| 2.6 | Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students. |
| 3.1 | Establish challenging learning goals: Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics. |
| 3.2 | Plan, structure and sequence learning programs: Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies. |
| 3.3 | Use teaching strategies: Include a range of teaching strategies. |
| 3.4 | Select and use resources: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning. |
| 3.5 | Use effective classroom communication: Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement |
| 3.7 | Engage parents/carers in the educative process: Describe a broad range of strategies for involving parents/carers in the educative process. |
| 4.1 | Support student participation: Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities. |
| 4.2 | Manage classroom activities: Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions |
| 4.3 | Manage challenging behaviour: Demonstrate knowledge of practical approaches to manage challenging behaviour. |
| 4.4 | Maintain student safety: Describe strategies that support students’ wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements. |
| 4.5 | Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching. |
| 5.1 | Assess student learning: Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. |
| 7.1 | Meet professional ethics and responsibilities: Understand and apply the key principles described in codes of ethics and conduct for the teaching profession. |
| 7.2 | Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: Understand the relevant legislative, administrative and organisational policies and processes required for teachers according to school stage. |
| 7.3 | Engage with the parents/carers: Understand strategies for working effectively, sensitively and confidentially with parents/carers. |
Am I eligible to enrol in this course?
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Pre-requisites
Enrolled in Program ED707
Co-requisites
Not applicable
Anti-requisites
Not applicable
Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)
Not applicable
Microcredential Information
Not applicable
How am I going to be assessed?
Grading Scale
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Details of early feedback on progress
Students will be provided with feedback on their academic progress in the course via the results of the online quiz over the duration of the course.
Assessment tasks
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Quiz/zes | Individual | 50% | Five (5) quizzes due fortnightly each Friday by 4:30pm. |
Throughout teaching period (refer to Format) | Online Test (Quiz) |
| All | 2a | Written Piece | Group | 20% | 2500 words |
Week 9 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check and in class |
| All | 2b | Oral | Individual | 30% | 20 minute lesson segment. |
Week 10 | In Class |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Critical Knowledge and Reflection Quizzes | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | To consolidate your learning of the concepts presented in learning materials and tutorial activties as nested assessment. |
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| Product: | Quiz/zes | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | In this task you will complete five (5) quizzes, with one quiz released each fortnight during Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. Each quiz will be completed in Cadmus and is designed to evaluate your critical engagement with the online learning materials, recommended readings and tutorial activities. The quizzes will assess your capacity to analyse, synthesise, and apply advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in relation to health and physical education. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 2a:Sequence of Lessons and risk assessment | |||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to draw upon your knowledge of HPE pedagogies for student engagement to plan a sequence of lessons and construct a risk assessment. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||
| Format: | This is a group task. Your group will develop a sequence of 3 lessons (2500 words) in HPE for primary school aged students. The sequence should: Include school and wider community connections; be aimed at a specific year level with curriculum outcomes from both the Health and Movement strands of the Australian Curriculum;Include a documented risk assessment, within an Appendix, supporting the safety of all participants (students, colleagues, wider community members and organisations). In this task you will also plan for diverse groups using inclusive practices. This experience will also showcase your strategies for working effectively with supporting adults (colleagues, parents/carers and the wider community) and strategies for effectively reporting progress to students and parents/carers. Submit lesson sequence to Turnitin via Canvas by Friday week 9 |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Collaboration, Problem solving |
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| All - Assessment Task 2b:Teaching Segment | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to draw upon your knowledge of HPE pedagogies for student engagement and teach a 20 minute lesson segment. |
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| Product: | Oral | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Deliver a 20-minute PE segment aligned with your lesson plan from Task 2a, using inclusive strategies, instant activity, clear instruction, demonstration, and feedback. Create a safe, supportive environment that maximises student participation, demonstrate content mastery, and use effective behaviour management to keep students actively engaged throughout the lesson. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Organisation |
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Directed study hours
A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
What resources do I need to undertake this course?
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Prescribed text(s) or course reader
You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Required | Natalie McMaster | 2019 | Teaching Health and Physical Education in Early Childhood and the Primary Years | n/a | Oxford University Press, USA |
Specific requirements
It is compulsory for all students to wear suitable exercising clothing and covered footwear appropriate for physical activity in all practical workshops. Appropriate sun protection and hydration strategies for all outdoor and practical activities are also the responsibility of the student.
How are risks managed in this course?
What administrative information is relevant to this course?
Assessment: Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Assessment: Additional Requirements
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Assessment: Submission penalties
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
Links to relevant University policy and procedures
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
- Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
- Review of Assessment and Final Grades
- Supplementary Assessment
- Central Examinations
- Deferred Examinations
- Student Conduct
- Students with a Disability
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
Student Charter
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.
General Enquiries
For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.
For other enquiries or to access support, please contact Student Central: