PDHPE: Nurturing Mental Health with Jaguars

Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education (PDHPE) is one of the outstanding subjects at SISS – the first and only school in Vietnam to implement the New South Wales (Australia) program.

This subject helps students think critically, solve problems, and make informed decisions related to health, safety, mental health, and physical activities. In addition, secondary school students will also be equipped with the necessary skills to ensure safety when using cyberspace so that they can become smart, intelligent users and not be influenced by negative online influences. Some of the areas covered in the PDHPE curriculum of schools in New South Wales include:

• Child protection education and respectful relationships
• Drug Education
• Physical Health Education
• Sexual Health Education
• Life Education
• Mental Health Education

At SISS, child protection education and mental and physical health education are two areas that are focused on teaching for the following reasons:

• Students need to be equipped with methods to protect themselves from abuse.
• Students need to be nurtured with a strong mental health foundation.
• Students need to learn how to connect with adults and those around them, especially in today’s volatile world.
• Students need to be treated with respect and protected from danger.
• Students need to be fully empowered to learn, develop, and contribute to society.
• Students need access to learning resources.
• Students need to learn how to recognize, detect, and report abuse.
• Students are equipped with adequate skills to ensure good physical health.

PDHPE applies the following 7 teaching and learning models to help students acquire knowledge, practice skills and improve mental health more effectively:

• Direct Instruction: Teacher acts as the instructional leader.
• Cooperative learning: Students learn with, by, and for each other.
• Personalised System for Instruction: Students progress as fast or as slowly as they need to.
• Peer Teaching: Students teach other students.
• Inquiry Teaching: Students are the center of the inquiry process and act as problem solvers.
• Tactical Games: Skill development and tactical understanding are developed through gameplay.
• Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility: Students learn by taking responsibility for their actions, being empowered, and developing relationships.

Depending on the year level and individual needs, the School offers different learning methods to support students in this subject. The SISS international teaching staff, fully trained according to NESA (New South Wales Education Standards Authority) standards, guide students on a journey toward creating a safe, violence-free learning environment and a happy and healthy community.