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What is the School Wellness Education model?

This is an excerpt from K-12 School Wellness Education by Hannah Holl,Randy Nichols.

The School Wellness Education (SWE) model provides an innovative approach to teaching physical education (PE) in schools. There are three elements of SWE:

1. Whole School
2. Living Well
3. Self- Empowerment

The overall goal of the SWE model is to reframe how PE is viewed in schools by redefining the role of the physical educator and focusing the curriculum on students’ well-being. SWE starts with why and has two primary focus points: the individual student and their well- being.

The SWE model provides opportunities for students to learn how a physically active lifestyle can enhance their well-being and thus helps them grow on their physical literacy journey. The model focuses on rebuilding the health and wellness of our society through schools using certified physical educators as physical activity and wellness advocates. Units are based on the National Physical Education Standards (SHAPE America 2025) and five key areas of wellness.

In 2024, the National Physical Education Standards were updated to reflect the latest physical activity and public health research and to provide a better connection between PE and the well-being needs of today’s students (SHAPE America 2025). These standards are grounded in research and incorporate psychomotor, cognitive, social, and affective domains of learning to guide students on their physical literacy journey. While physical literacy refers to the ability, confidence, and desire to be physically active for life, the physical literacy journey is the ongoing acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for engagement in a lifetime of healthful and meaningful physical activity (SHAPE America 2025).

The term physical literacy journey demonstrates that physical literacy should be dynamic and grow with students across and beyond their pre-K-12 years. The physical literacy journey is not simply about mastering skills or achieving an outcome. It represents an ongoing process of developing and refining skills, building confidence in a variety of movements, and garnering appreciation and motivation for physical activity both now and for a lifetime (SHAPE America 2025). The new standards were designed to be equitable and inclusive for all students, regardless of their skill level, age, class, gender, or race. The standards are relevant, developmentally appropriate, and intended to allow students to find their own meaning for physical activity. Specifically, the standards are designed to prepare students to

• develop a variety of motor skills,
• apply knowledge related to movement and fitness concepts,
• develop social skills through movement, and
• develop personal skills, identify personal benefits of movement, and choose to engage in physical activity.

In addition to incorporating the National Physical Education Standards, the SWE model includes five components of Living Well developed by the Department of Physical and Health Education at Slippery Rock University:

1. Nutrition
2. Social and emotional wellness
3. The human body and responses to physical activity
4. Health-related fitness
5. Injury prevention and safety

These will be discussed in the section on Living Well.

In addition, the SWE model integrates the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) approach such that teachers are trained to see the whole school as their area of influence instead of just their gymnasium or classroom.

More Excerpts From K-12 School Wellness Education

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