Page 15 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12: Health and Physical Education, 2015 - revised

and physical education, and they can apply various other critical and creative thinking processes that they develop in health and physical education to their study of dance, or to question historical interpretations, or to make connections between personal actions and environmental impacts. They can also apply the knowledge and skills they acquire in health and physical education to make healthier choices in all aspects of their lives. They can apply the understanding of movement that they acquire in health and physical education to other physical activities that they participate in at school, at home, and in the community, and they can apply their learning about healthy living to make healthier food choices, help with meal preparation, and make decisions about substance use, sexual health,
and injury prevention.
Parents
Parents5 play an important role in supporting student learning. Studies show that students perform better in school if their parents are involved in their education.
By becoming familiar with the curriculum, parents can better appreciate what is being taught in the courses their daughters and sons are taking and what they are expected to learn. This awareness will enhance parents’ ability to discuss their children’s work with them, to communicate with teachers, and to ask relevant questions about their children’s progress. Knowledge of the expectations will also help parents understand how their children are progressing in school and enhance their ability to work with teachers to improve their children’s learning.
Parents are the primary educators of their children with respect to learning about values, appropriate behaviour, and ethnocultural, spiritual, and personal beliefs and traditions, and they act as significant role models for their children. It is therefore important for schools and parents to work together to ensure that home and school provide a mutually supportive framework for young people’s education.
Parents can support their children’s learning effectively in a variety of ways. They can attend parent-teacher interviews, participate in parent workshops, and take part in school council activities or become a school council member. With respect to health and physical education, parents can support their children’s learning by encouraging them to complete assignments at home and practise new skills, and by monitoring their progress. Parents can also be supportive by promoting and attending events related to healthy, active living at the school. Many parents can contribute to creating a healthy school environment through their expertise in a range of related disciplines. Parents who work in the health
or recreation fields, for example, may be able to contribute as guest speakers or as volunteers during health or physical education classes or co-curricular activities or
to serve as a resource for students conducting research projects.
Parents and all adult role models can also provide valuable support for their children’s learning by being as physically active as they can be and by modelling healthy choices
(to the extent possible) connected to eating, substance use, relationships, personal care, mental health, and injury prevention. Adolescents who have opportunities to be physically active with the family are more likely to continue to be active as adults. Families that select healthy foods and prepare healthy meals together help young people develop food literacy skills and reinforce healthy eating habits. In addition, eating meals together as a family has
5. The word parent(s) is used in this document to refer to parent(s) and guardian(s). It may also be taken to include caregivers or close family members who are responsible for raising the child.
INTRODUCTION
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