Specialist Programs

Health and Physical Education

The Health and Physical Education program provides students with knowledge, skills and behaviours to enable them to achieve a degree of autonomy in developing and maintaining their physical, mental, social and emotional health. It focuses on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and physical activity in the lives of individuals and groups in our society.

Students’ involvement in physical activity can take many forms, ranging from individual, non-competitive activity through to competitive team games. Emphasis is placed on combining motor skills and tactical knowledge to improve individual and team performance. Students’ progress from the development of basic motor skills to the performance of complex movement patterns that form part of team games. They learn how developing physical capacity in areas such as strength, flexibility and endurance is related to both fitness and physical performance

Standards in the Health and Physical Education domain are organised in two dimensions.

• Movement and physical activity
• Health knowledge and promotion

Movement and physical activity

The Movement and physical activity dimension focuses on the important role that physical activity, sport and recreation need to play in the lives of all Australians by providing opportunities for challenge, personal growth, enjoyment and fitness. It promotes involvement in a manner that reflects awareness that everyone has the right to participate in a healthy and active lifestyle. It develops students’ confidence in using movement skills and strategies to increase their motivation to become active as well as improve their performance and maintain a level of fitness that allows them to participate in physical activity without undue fatigue. It builds understanding of how training and exercise in areas such as strength, flexibility and endurance relate to physical performance.

Health knowledge and promotion

The Health knowledge and promotion dimension examines physical, social, emotional and mental health and personal development across various stages of the lifespan. It focuses on safety and the identification of strategies to minimise harms associated with particular situations or behaviours. Students examine the promotion of health of individuals and the community through the use of specific strategies and the provision of health resources, services and products. They examine the factors that influence food selection and the role of nutrition on health growth and development.

The Arts

At Jacana School for Autism, Visual Arts and the Performing Arts are programmed.

Standards in The Arts are organised into 2 dimensions.

• Creating and making
• Exploring and responding.

The Creating and making dimension focuses on ideas, skills, techniques, processes, performances and presentations. It includes engagement in concepts that emerge from a range of starting points and stimuli. Students explore experiences, ideas, feelings and understandings through making, interpreting, performing, creating and presenting. Creating and making arts works involves imagination and experimentation; planning; the application of arts elements, principles and/or conventions; skills, techniques and processes; media, materials, equipment and technologies; reflection; and refinement. Individually and collaboratively, students explore their own works and works by other artists working in different historic and cultural contexts.

The Exploring and responding dimension focuses on context, interpreting and responding, criticism and aesthetics. It involves students analysing and developing understanding about their own and other people’s work and expressing personal and informed judgments of arts works. Involvement in evaluating meaning, ideas and/or content in finished products is integral to engagement in the Arts.

Food Technology/Homecrafts

The interdisciplinary domain of design, creativity and technology emphasises engagement in designing and creating products.
Standards in the Design, Creativity and Technology domain are organised in three dimensions.

• Investigating and designing
• Producing
• Analysing and evaluating

At JSA, we investigate; produce and evaluate within the context of our kitchen and garden spaces through practical cooking sessions.

Students development of capability in this domain includes the ability to use, manage, assess and understand design, creativity, technology, and their relationship to innovation. In more detail, this involves students:

• posing problems and actively identifying needs, wants, opportunities and areas for improvement
• gathering information and building knowledge about the nature of needs, wants, opportunities and areas for improvement and the best routes to take towards designing a solution
• using tools, equipment, materials/ingredients and systems safely and creatively to make quality products.