The Curricular Anatomy of Primary School Health Education

Abstract

The paper describes a survey of the health education which was taught in 193 Sheffield primary schools during the school year 1978/79 as reported by class teachers. Data were obtained from 728 teachers who between them were responsible for classes of pupils covering the age range from 5 to 12 years. The teaching of particular health topics, and the effective priority given to them by teachers, were found, in the main, to vary systematically with the age of the pupils. Most health education was found to be taught incidentally within other subjects or activities with only, on average, about 20% or so of the topics taught as discrete entities in their own right. The survey results are discussed in the light of present practice in health education and, more generally, in the context of current concerns with describing economically the reality of the curriculum in action.