The mission of the health and physical education department is to provide a planned, sequential and comprehensive curriculum that focuses on cognitive content and learning experiences in a variety of activity areas, such as basic movement skills, physical fitness, and team, dual and individual sports.

The curriculum is also intended to motivate students to maintain and improve their health now and later in life.

The health and physical education curriculum includes the following programs.

Physical Education Units:

Students choose and rotate to different units every few weeks.

• Flag Football

• Soccer

• Softball

• Lacrosse

• Ice Skating

• Basketball

• Volleyball

• Badminton

• Floor Hockey

• Speedball

• Tennis

• Cricket

• Weight Training

• CT Fitness Test

• Walking

• Ultimate Frisbee

• Cooperative Games/Activity

Health(e) Teen — This is offered to West Haven High School students in grade ten in collaboration with Yale University’s Nursing Program. The class is a school-based Internet obesity program for adolescents and consists of eight lessons on healthy eating and physical activity that are meant to be provided one to two times a week over four to eight weeks.

Teen Outreach Program — This program is offered by West Haven High School in collaboration with Family Centered Services of CT. The curriculum covers relationships, goal-setting, decision-making, and adolescent development, among other topics. Students plan service projects and are expected to participate in at least twenty hours of service learning.

The state of Connecticut now requires all high school students to have a full credit of Health Education in order to graduate. Health 1 & Health 2 fulfill that requirement. (Updated 11/28/2023)

Health Education 1 (.5 credit, ½ year course) 

This course teaches students about engaging and mentally stimulating topics on the subject of health and certain practices that promote healthy behaviors and lifestyles.  Topics in this class include physical health, physical activity and nutrition, mental health, social health, emotional health, and drugs and alcohol.  This course provides students with the basic information and knowledge to uphold and maintain health and wellness throughout their lives. 

Health Education 2 (.5 credit, ½ year course) 

This course enables students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to promote the lifelong goals of health and wellness. The focus of the course is to empower each student with the capacity to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services, and apply that knowledge to make informed health-enhancing decisions in their daily life.   

This course takes content learned from Health 1 and allows students to apply that content to their lives. Content areas of Health Education include but are not limited to the following: community health, consumer health, environmental health, family life (human sexuality, parenting, relationships, human growth and development), mental and emotional health, injury prevention, nutrition, personal health and fitness, prevention and control of disease, and substance use and abuse.  

Through the study of these conceptual areas, students will not only comprehend the principles related to health promotion and disease prevention but will also be able to demonstrate their ability to use this knowledge in a healthy manner.