Curriculum framework

Quick Links Menu	Early childhood	Middle childhood	Early adolescence
Knowledge and understanding	x	x	x
Self-management skills	x	x	x
Interpersonal skills	x	x	x
Attitudes and values	x	x	x

Early childhood

Foundations for Healthy Relationships (typically Kindergarten to Year 3)

Knowledge and understanding

Teachers can help students in the early childhood years to establish a strong foundation in concepts related to developing healthy relationships throughout their lives.

• Information should be provided about the meaning of the term ‘sexuality’, including correct terminology for body parts and human growth from birth to present age. Recognising that people are uniquely different both physically and emotionally is an important realisation for young children.
• Discovering that families can be structured differently is another important realisation. Opportunities to discuss changes which may occur within the family, such as the arrival of a new baby, separation or divorce, should also be included.
• Friends and friendship development are important concepts to be discussed in the context of self-knowledge.
• Learning to keep safe and to reduce risks to their health is also important for young children. Children need to know about the safe disposal of needles and syringes, and safety procedures if they are bleeding or if they find a person who is bleeding.

Self-management skills

• Young children should be given opportunities to observe, develop and explore self-management skills as individuals in class and friendship groups.

• They should practise decision-making, goal setting and planning skills to maintain their personal safety through play and interaction with peers, siblings and school community members.

• The basic steps of decision-making when confronted with a situation such as finding a person who is bleeding or finding a needle and syringe should be learned and practised.

• Opportunities should be provided for the children to explain to friends, a teacher or family member the basic strategies used to cope with unsafe situations or unhappy feelings such as harassment, bullying or changes in life situations.

Interpersonal skills

• Young children need opportunities and support to learn and value the interpersonal skills required to communicate and cooperate with peers and others in play, games, school and social situations.

• Opportunities for children to speak positively about themselves, as well as openly express their feelings about topics such as ways of expressing love and affection should be provided.

• Children need to practise the effective use of the telephone in emergency situations.

• Assertive verbal and non-verbal messages should be practised to help young children to cope with situations in which feel uncomfortable.

• Children should also have the opportunity to learn about their place in their family and social group and how they can use their communication and cooperation skills to strengthen and maintain their relationships with family members, peers and the school community. At this phase of development, young children begin to understand how relationships can change and how to use their interpersonal and self-management skills to cope with those changes.

Attitudes and values

• Children learn to identify and demonstrate attitudes and values that contribute to the prevention of ill health.

• Young children acknowledge the value of safety procedures if they find a person who is bleeding. They should recognise personal responsibility for their health.

• Children learn to value and demonstrate a commitment to the benefits of collaboration. Children explore friendships, valuing skills to promote health and rewarding relationships with peers, family and the wider community. They demonstrate this by being inclusive and just in their interpersonal relationships in the classroom, peer, friendship and team situations.

• Children value the concept of personal excellence, understanding the need to cope with change to attain their goals and to enjoy a healthy rewarding life. Religious insights may influence the values and attitudes of some students.

   

Middle childhood

Enhancing Healthy Relationships (typically Year 3 to Year 7)

Knowledge and understanding

• In the middle childhood years, children build upon prior learning and experiences to gain a more detailed understanding of their personal health.

• Since some girls begin to menstruate at this age, changes that occur as children grow and develop, particularly menstruation and other puberty changes, should be examined.

• Children in this phase of learning typically begin to separate somewhat from parents. Opportunities need to be provided for investigating these changing relationships with friends, peers and families. Children should also be encouraged to value the maintenance of positive relationships.

• Individual differences in expressing affection and what ‘love’ means to them are important concepts to be discussed in this phase.

• Opportunities to discuss accurate information about conception, contraception, pregnancy and birth should be provided.

• Further development of an understanding of communicable diseases such as HIV and hepatitis, as well as behaviours for transmission of these diseases should also be addressed.

Self-management skills

• Children in this phase should be able to demonstrate actions they can take if they find someone who is bleeding or find something that may contain blood or blood products.

• Children should be provided with opportunities to learn and practise applying decision-making skills to determine what actions they should take to reduce the risk of communicable diseases such HIV and hepatitis. In addition, opportunities should be provided to practise group decision-making and goal setting about strategies to help address the concerns of students of this age. This includes issues related to social and sexual development, dating dilemmas and situations involving peer influence on sexual health issues and behaviours.

Interpersonal skills

• Children should continue to develop interpersonal skills to allow participation in strategies such as group discussions and role-play with growth and development issues.

• Opportunities should be provided to practise open communication as a strategy to maintain a healthy self-esteem/self-knowledge while they are growing older and experiencing the changes of puberty.

• Continued development of assertiveness skills should be addressed for situations such as unwanted pressure statements or situations where they may be at risk of contracting blood-borne diseases.

Attitudes and values

• Students identify attitudes and values that enhance their current health status and contribute to the prevention of ill health.

• Students acknowledge the value of personal hygiene and personal responsibility to protect themselves from blood-borne infections.

• Students acknowledge that physical and social changes require an increased awareness and personal acceptance to maintain health. A positive attitude to avoiding ill health is encouraged by providing students with strategies to help them to avoid pregnancy, blood-borne diseases and other STIs.

• Students value and demonstrate a commitment to the benefits of collaboration.

• Students explore concerns about growing up, changing, puberty and relationships. They value the fundamental skills to cooperate, resolve conflict, communicate as a team and have a high level of care for each other.

• Students recognise and value safe and supportive environments.

• Students recognise and value the role of agencies and other sources of sexuality information.

• Students know and protect their own rights and respect the rights of others.

• Students recognise the possible influence of peer attitudes and values when making decisions about sexual health. They value and demonstrate that they have the ultimate choice to protect their own health and have a positive influence on their peers regardless of gender, race, culture, physical or mental disability or experiential background.

• Students recognise and respect the value of goal setting to gain an understanding of the concept of personal excellence and the skills to strive to achieve personal excellence.

Early Adolescence

Healthy Relationships and Sexual Health (typically Year 7 to Year 10)

Knowledge and understanding

• Opportunities to discuss the physical, emotional and social changes associated with growth and development should continue to be provided to allow for different development rates of individual students.

• Further understanding of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) should be addressed, as should the concepts of conception, contraception (condoms in particular), pregnancy and birth. Opportunities to identify and discuss risks associated with sexual activity, such as pregnancy and STIs should be provided.

• Accurate information related to sexuality issues and the law should also be discussed.

• Further, opportunities for identification and assessment of personal actions that can affect the quality of different types of relationships should be provided.

Self-management skills

• Students should apply the decision-making process in a variety of familiar and unfamiliar situations. This process could be used to examine strategies students would personally use to help manage the changes of puberty, to make decisions about sexual activity and to help choose between the options for pregnant teenagers.

• Students should be encouraged to set personal goals to prevent or reduce the risk of blood-borne viruses (BBVs) and STIs, plan and practise strategies to be used for resolving family conflicts and managing the stress associated with unresolved family conflicts.

• Problem-solving skills should be applied to issues such as improvement of communication and negotiation about teenage sexual activity between participants.

• An opportunity for description and/or demonstration of correct procedure for use and disposal of a condom should also be provided.

Interpersonal skills

• Opportunities to practise communication skills for talking with a teacher or other health professional about issues such as contraception or puberty concerns should be provided.

• Opportunities should also be provided for students to practise active listening and speaking skills as a strategy to maintain healthy relationships in group situations or in close personal relationships.

• Continued development of assertiveness skills should be addressed for more complex (and emotional) situations such as unwanted pressure statements or situations where they may be at risk of contracting blood-borne diseases.

Attitudes and values

• Students increasingly value the concept of acceptance of personal responsibility for their short-term health.

• Opportunities should be provided for students to recognise and respect ways to avoid or reduce the risks associated with participating in sexual activity.

• Students value the importance of personal safety, recognising behaviours to avoid ill health, such as the use of condoms to prevent sexually transmissible infections.

• Through discussion of the physical, emotional, mental and social changes associated with growth and development, students acknowledge the value of collaboration and the benefits of seeking compromise in situations in which conflicting views are evident.

• Students should recognise and value the role of agencies and other sources of sexuality information.

• Students know and protect their own rights and respect the rights of others.

• Students value the importance of relationships with other individuals, families and within communities and value being inclusive and just in these relationships.

Adapted from:
Curriculum Framework for Kindergarten to Year 12 Education in Western Australia, with the permission of the Curriculum Council of Western Australia 2009.