Bachelor of Health and Physical Education (Primary) (Honours)

This four-and-a-half-year degree prepares you to teach health and physical education in Australian primary schools. It's an honours degree, so you graduate with research training built in, not bolted on. The extra time compared with a standard three-year bachelor comes from combining teacher education with an honours-level research project, and from the professional experience placements that teaching registration demands.

What you actually study

The curriculum side covers how children learn movement, how to plan and teach health and physical education across the primary years, and how to assess it. You'll study anatomy and physiology, growth and motor development, and the health issues that matter in Australian primary schools, things like physical literacy, nutrition, and mental health and wellbeing. Alongside that sits the broader teacher education content: literacy and numeracy teaching, classroom management, working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities, and inclusive practice for students with disability. The honours component means a supervised research project, usually in your later years, where you investigate a question in health, physical education or primary teaching and write it up as a thesis.

How the degree is structured

Australian bachelor degrees are built from units of study, each worth a set number of credit points, and you need a total number of credit points to graduate. At Notre Dame, the academic year runs across semesters, and this degree is delivered over four and a half years of full-time study. The honours research thesis is the capstone, the piece of work that pulls together your research skills and your subject knowledge. Professional experience is embedded throughout rather than saved for the end: you'll go into primary schools for supervised teaching placements, starting with observation and building up to taking responsibility for classes. That's the work-integrated learning that the teaching profession requires, and it's what the Teacher Registration Board in your state or territory will look at when you apply for registration.

Skills you come out with

You'll be able to design and teach health and physical education lessons that actually work for primary-aged kids, manage a class, assess student learning, and explain your teaching choices to parents and colleagues. The honours research training gives you something extra: the ability to read research critically, design a small study, and write it up properly. Those skills carry over into teaching itself, where evidence-based practice matters more every year.

Who it suits

This is for people who want to teach in primary schools and who care about kids' health and movement. You might be a school leaver, or you might be changing careers, plenty of students come to teaching later, sometimes from coaching, sport, or health backgrounds. You'll need to meet the English language requirement for teaching courses, which is higher than the standard undergraduate level, because you'll be in classrooms communicating with children. If you're an international student, you can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and after you finish you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream. Check the official page and the CRICOS register for the current details on fees, intakes and requirements.

• Primary school teacher, health and physical education specialist or general classroom teacher in government, Catholic and independent primary schools across Australia
• Health and physical education teacher, schools that run specialist PE programmes and want a teacher with research training
• Sport and recreation coordinator, primary schools, after-school programmes, community sport clubs
• Wellbeing or student support officer, schools with a focus on student health, physical activity and mental wellbeing
• Curriculum developer, education publishers, subject associations, and school systems building health and PE resources
• Community health promotion officer, local councils, not-for-profits and health services running programmes for children and families
• Research assistant, university research groups and education bodies, using the research skills from the honours thesis
• Further study, a master's degree in education, special education, or public health, or a doctorate if you want to keep going in research