Course Descriptions

Family & Consumer Sciences

The Family and Consumer Sciences courses at Chelmsford High School consist of three different Exploring Early Childhood courses. These courses prepare students for multiple roles in the home, work and the community as well as offer training for many diverse professions including day-care worker, babysitter, and with further education, a preschool, elementary, middle school, or high school teacher. By coordinating classroom theory with hands-on experience, students develop and enhance their creative skills, and their problem-solving skills necessary for successful living now and in the future. The Exploring Early Childhood 3 course at Chelmsford High School is a Dual-Enrollment course that all students enrolled in can take for college credit.

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.