Greetings, families!
Very soon district planning for the sixth grade schedule with the new middle school model will take place, at which time a decision will be made about whether or not health education and PE will be provided to sixth graders in St. Paul Public Schools. Moving from elementary to middle school may be a huge shift for many students, and the health curriculum addresses many of the health-related challenges that these youngest middle years students are going to face.
Content for the district's health curriculum include: social, mental and emotional health; nutrition, physical activity and body systems; safety and the environment; alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; and human growth and development.
Students are supposed to receive health education in elementary grades -- it's actually a requirement for all districts in Minnesota. Yet not all schools provide this instruction, so incoming sixth graders may enter middle school with little exposure to and knowledge about the topics listed above. In addition, considerable research demonstrates a strong connection between physical activity and education and academic achievement.
If you would like to support the inclusion of health education and PE in the sixth grade curriculum, please consider signing and the petition soon (by Monday next week if possible!) and feel free to forward this request to other St. Paul Public Schools families. Thanks in advance for any support you'd be able to offer!
St. Paul Public Schools Green and Healthy Kids Advisory Board families
Questions?
Contact: Michelle Wall, 5th grade parent at Randolph Heights Elementary and co-chair, Randolph Heights Green and Healthy Kids, at michellerwall@gmail.com