Health and life skills involves learning about the habits, behaviours, interactions and decisions related to healthy daily living and planning for the future. It is personal in nature and involves abilities based on a body of knowledge and practice that builds on personal values and beliefs within the context of family, school and community. Some examples of these learnings include the ability of students to:
• make effective personal decisions for current and future issues and challenges
• plan and set goals
• employ critical reflection
• cope with change and transition
• manage stress
• analyze and manage career and health-related information
• recognize and expand personal skills
• recognize, explore and expand career opportunities and options
• explore service learning/volunteerism
• commit to lifelong learning.
The home, school and community play important roles in contributing to the healthy personal development of students, by providing an opportunity for them to consider information and acquire, practise and demonstrate strategies for dealing with the challenges of life and living. The aim of the Health and Life Skills Kindergarten to Grade 9 Program of Studies is to enable students to make well-informed, healthy choices and to develop behaviours that contribute to the well-being of self and others. To achieve this aim, students require an understanding of self as the basis for healthy interactions with others and for career development and lifelong learning. Students also require a safe and caring school and community environment in which to explore ideas and issues surrounding personal choice, to seek accurate information, and to practise healthy behaviours.
Comprehensive School Health This health and life skills program of studies provides a basis for instruction in schools. To achieve overall health goals for students, curriculum connections between services and resources within the school and wider community are needed. A comprehensive school health approach is desirable.
A comprehensive school health model incorporates:
• health and physical education instruction that promotes improved commitment to healthy choices and behaviours health and community services that focus on health promotion and provision of appropriate services to students who need assistance and intervention
• environments that promote and support behaviours that enhance the health of students, families and school staff. The health of students is viewed as an integral component of a larger system of health within the home, school and community environment. It involves the establishment of collaborative partnerships among students, parents, educators, health care professionals and other community supports to address social and environmental factors that influence and determine optimal health.
Responsible, Healthy Choices To make responsible and healthy choices, students need to know how to seek out relevant and accurate information. They learn health-related information from many sources, including home, school, peers, the community and the media. The health and life skills program assists students in identifying reliable sources of information and in becoming discerning consumers of health-related information. Students research, evaluate and synthesize information in an effort to understand health issues and to apply the learning to current and future personal situations. Choices, as evidenced by related behaviour, are based on attitudes, beliefs and values. The family is the primary educator in the development of student attitudes and values. The school and community play a supportive and crucial role in building on these attitudes and values.
In the health and life skills program, students develop decision-making skills that build resiliency and self-efficacy, help expand strategies for coping, and support informed personal health practices. Students develop personal responsibility for health, learn to prevent or reduce risk, and have opportunities to demonstrate caring for self and others. Students focus on personal and collective safety, as well as injury prevention. Outcomes related to safety and injury prevention promote strategies to assess risk, to reduce potential harm, and to identify support systems for self and others.
Students learn about products, substances and behaviours that may be injurious to their health. They also learn strategies to use in unsafe situations. Students are encouraged to promote and maintain health as a valued and valuable resource, and to examine health issues and factors that promote or limit good health. They gain an understanding that, in addition to the effect of their individual behaviours on their health status, there are social and environmental factors that are beyond their immediate control, which also have a significant impact on their health.
In an environment of acceptance, understanding, respect and caring, students in the health and life skills program can learn to acknowledge and express personal feelings and emotions, as well as to appreciate the strengths and talents of self and others. There are opportunities for students to accept and appreciate diversity and the uniqueness of self and others in our global society. This program emphasizes healthy interactions and values, such as integrity, honesty and trust that underlie safe and caring relationships. Friendship skills are developed and then extended to incorporate skills for working in groups. Such skills include conflict management, consensus building, negotiation and mediation. Students examine the various sources of stress in relationships, which include behaviour-related factors and those due to natural life cycle changes and transitions. They learn strategies to deal with unhealthy relationships, as well as traumatic events. Throughout the program, students build and expand upon safe and supportive networks for self and others that link the home, school and community.
Students also develop the skills of goal setting, prioritizing and balancing various roles and life/work priorities. As students develop decisionmaking skills, they begin to realize that the locus of control, or their ability to influence or control many outcomes and results, is within their own power.
Through the health and life skills program, students acquire a strong foundation of knowledge, skills and attitudes basic to employability. Successful careers are founded on a basis of self-knowledge, self-esteem, healthy interactions, lifelong learning and skill development. A fundamental aspect of career education is to move students from being dependent learners to being independent and interdependent, contributing citizens. Students gain confidence and a sense of commitment to family, school and community through opportunities for participation in cross-age interactions, volunteerism and meaningful involvement in a variety of activities. Beginning in the early school years, students develop personal and group skills. These are reinforced as the program expands to include practical skills directly related to further education, job seeking and career path exploration. Skills related to the management of personal resources, such as time, energy, creativity, money and personal property, are essential elements that build personal capacity and lead toward future career productivity. Students build upon the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to recognize opportunities, critically evaluate options and expand career strategies to meet current and future challenges.
