Course Descriptions
Family and Consumer Sciences Department – High School Education Pathway
The Family and Consumer Sciences Department offers a dynamic Education Pathway for high school students interested in exploring careers that shape the future. Our program features three courses: Child Growth and Development, Discover Teaching, and Supervised Education Practicum and Seminar, all offered as dual enrollment opportunities through Middlesex Community College.
These courses prepare students for multiple roles in the home, workplace, and community while providing career training for diverse professions. Students gain foundational knowledge and skills applicable to roles such as daycare worker or babysitter, and with additional education, careers as preschool, elementary, middle, or high school teachers.
By combining classroom instruction with hands-on field experiences, students develop essential problem-solving, communication, and creative-thinking skills. This coordinated approach allows students to connect theory with real-world application, strengthening their ability to support and educate children while also preparing them for successful living now and in the future.
The Family and Consumer Sciences Education Pathway not only gives students a head start on college coursework but also inspires and equips them to pursue meaningful careers in education and human services.
Health Education
The Chelmsford Public Schools offers a comprehensive health education curriculum to all students in grades 5 to 9 and grade 12. Health Education builds students’ knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes about health. Health education teaches about physical, mental, emotional and social health. It motivates students to improve and maintain their health, prevent disease, and reduce risky behaviors. Our health education curriculum and instruction help students learn skills they will use to make healthy choices throughout their lifetime.
The focus of our curriculum is skill development/progression from introduction to reinforcement to mastery. Teachers use the content to practice and demonstrate the skill. The following skills are taught within the Health Education Curriculum: Self-Management; Analyzing Influences; Accessing Valid and Reliable Information; Goal Setting; Interpersonal Communication Skills; Decision Making; and Advocacy. Content is used to reinforce the skill so that students learn to transfer the skill from one aspect or area of their life to another.
Physical Education
The Chelmsford Public Schools offers a comprehensive physical education program in grades PreK-8 and 10-11. The physical education curriculum focuses on a variety of motor skills that are designed to enhance the physical, mental, and social/emotional development of every child. Fitness education and assessments are taught to help students learn, understand, improve and/or maintain their physical well-being. Development of cognitive concepts about motor skill and fitness are an essential part of the physical education curriculum as well. We strive to provide all students with opportunities to improve their emerging social and cooperative skills and gain a multicultural perspective in our physical education courses.
We have an extensive adventure curriculum with indoor climbing walls, indoor ropes, outdoor low ropes, and high ropes courses at our elementary, middle and high school as well as a state-of-the-art fitness center at Chelmsford High School. Additionally, there is an 18-hole disc golf course on the McCarthy Middle School and Chelmsford High School campuses that are utilized in PE classes during the school day and the community outside of the school day.
