Skip to main content

Upper School Physical Education

We want to help each of our Upper School students live a life of physical fitness, healthy nutrition, and responsible decision-making.

Making Wellness a Priority

Our goal is to give students frequent opportunities to develop their minds, bodies, and spirits. We work to create an atmosphere of wellness in our classrooms that extends into the community, by instilling the values of physical fitness, good character, skill building, and an overall healthy lifestyle. By teaching our students about current facts and practices for physical fitness, healthy living, and leisure-time pursuits, we hope that they gain a sense of responsible decision-making that leads to active, healthy, and productive lifestyles.

Accordion

The goal of the Upper School freshman course is to introduce many different fitness activities while also continuing to expose students to a variety of team sports. The fitness portion of the curriculum aims to teach students about setting fitness goals and working towards achieving those goals. Students will work with heart rate monitors to better understand heart rate zones and exertion levels during their workouts. Students will also learn how to go through two weight room workouts, using proper form on activities, and learning how to properly spot their lifting partners. Other activities that students will be exposed to include yoga, Pilates, and interval workouts.  Team sports in the curriculum include, but are not limited to soccer, cricket, floor hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and football.

The Upper School sophomore course aims to provide students with opportunities to learn how to be physically and mentally well. Students will be exposed to a variety of lifetime sports and activities as well as fitness exercises that aim to provide stress release to each student. Yoga and Pilates will be incorporated throughout the curriculum as well as guided meditation and self-defense. Students will also learn new workouts in the weight room and different fitness workouts they can use outside of the classroom. Lifetime sports that will be taught include, but are not limited to, golf, tennis, ultimate frisbee, cornhole, softball, and bowling.

This course takes a holistic approach to wellness and encourages students to become active participants in maintaining and/or improving their health. Topics include: physical activity; nutrition; stress management; drug education; healthy relationships and sex education; and suicide prevention and awareness training.

The second half of the course uses the Project Wayfinder curriculum developed at Stanford University. This curriculum is designed to help students lead lives of purpose and meaning. It involves self-reflection, self-understanding, and encourages purposeful behavior.