Health Education - Parents Page
What Are We Calling Health Education?
I am afraid I am a little old fashioned and I do not believe that sport is the only thing we we should include in Physical Education. Keeping healthy includes sleeping, cooking, eating and moving as well as resting. A healthy body and regular exercise helps us stay happier and wards off depression. So, here at Orchard Training we talk about Health Education not Physical Education. For many of our autisic learners to live independently on their own means that their parents are no longer in the control of the food shopping, the kitchen and what goes on the plate and finally in to their mouth. For some this becomes a huge problem as their weight goes up, they need the skills to eat healthy.
For some of our learners who we see in hospital - getting out to do a sport is simply not possible.
So we talk about "being healthy" not being "physical fit."
Following A Set Programme of Learning
Teaching health education involves more than sports. It involves helping learners to see their bodies in a new way. It involves building learners confidence in their ability to solve challenging problems, and empowering them to build a better future for themselves and others.
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Because we don't have to follow the National Curriculum we don't have to run in straight lines on sports day. Whatever physical activity takes your fancy - try it!
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Taking part in sports can be done by going to a gym or joining a sports club. However, there is a cost associated to this. A number of our learners are with us because they are training for championships, so home schooling education is supporting them with a sporting career. They are not mutually exclusive.
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There are four basic physical activities which I would promote basically because they are the cheapest, often free and reap the best overall results.
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Walking, Running, Cycling and Swimming
Recording The Learning
Keeping a record of the activity in your diary is the best way of recording this.
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Activity
If you take part in competitions include details and any programmes etc. If you are allowed to record the event on your phone keep a digital copy.
Sleep
If you require support with learning to sleep please contact us and we can go through a sleep programme, where we cover NHS Sleep Hygiene Rules such as going to bed, sleeping, regular hours, and getting up. The programme we have will provide evidence for both the GP and the EWO.
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Eating
Keeping your own cookery book with photographs of the finished items is a very telling way that you doing this activity. This is one of the things that impresses the Education Welfare Officers the most - for some reasons. So remember to cook, photograph and then transfer the photo to the recipe. You will need to look at portion size, allergies and seasonal cooking in this folder.
We don't just do sweet reduced treat cooking, healthy family meals are on the recipe list too! We type all our recipes out in a Word document. This allows the photograph to sit nicely on the page with the original recipe and notes about the changes we have made.
Why not follow us on Facebook or via our website and get details of the activities and events taking place throughout the year which encourage staying physical fit.
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Autumn 1: 5K run
Autumn 2 and Spring 1: Swimming enough laps to equal the English Channel
Spring 2- Summer 1: Walking the River Thames
Summer 2: Cycling
Health Education On A Home School Budget
Walking - walking is free. You can get from your local council details of local walks in your area using the national foot path schemes. From the local library you can chose a range of county wide walks or even books on walks where you holiday. You can go walking on a geography field trip along the coast, you can go on a history walk around a place of interest. You can go on night time Bat Walks for science or you can walk to appreciate the
change in seasons.
Why not join us on our Walking for Friendship Walks every First Thursday of the Month
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Cycling - the biggest cost is the bike. As the learner grows it can be costly to keep up with the leg length so use your local free-cycle website to swop over bikes for the next size. Once you have safely learnt to ride you can go almost any where.
Why not join us on our Cycle Training for the Charity Bike Ride
Swimming - the main cost is the lessons and then access cost on the day. The most important reason to learn to swim is that swimming is the only sport which can save your life. ...
Drowning is still one of the most common causes of accidental death in children, so being able to swim is an essential life-saving skill.
Including Health In The Learning Routine
Here, at Orchard Training we try to embed health into our projects, where it sits naturally and can be enjoyed. For example, in our project on cakes we included different cakes to make. In our British Waterways project water suggestions on water sports are included as well as walking the whole of the River Thames from source to mouth over the course of a year.
You don’t need any fancy, expensive equipment to teach health. Each project will list the resources you will need and suggestions of where to visit. They are written with the home-schooler’s budget in mind.
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Try to be active for about 30 minutes to an hour every day.
Think about what you are eating and how much sleep you are getting.