Murrabit Group School

Little faces peered through the school windows this morning excited by the prospect of what was waiting inside. It wasn’t long before the doors opened and the students filed in to see a healthy breakfast set up as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program.

 

After a warm welcome from the school captains, Amber and Tyson, students, teachers and families from Murrabit Playgroup enjoyed choosing from the range of cereals, toast, fresh locally grown oranges and cups of cold milk.

 

 

 

Once tummies were full, Mayor Cr. Neville Goulding said how great it was to be at Murrabit Group School and to hear so much enthusiastic chatter as students enjoyed the rare treat of eating breakfast together. Cr. Goulding launched the new Gannawarra Ride2School media clip produced by Council in partnership with three local primary schools. The clip was funded by Bicycle Network Victoria as part of the Ride2School program and was designed to support and encourage more students to ride to school, not just across the Gannawarra Shire, but right across Victoria.

While riding to school can be challenging in rural areas, Murrabit Group School has a fantastic bike education program where students are able to learn to be road safe while riding their bikes in their community. The media clip helped to reinforce what the children had learnt about bikes and applying these lessons to a rural context – checking a bike’s ‘roadworthiness’ using the ABC for bikes – Air, Brakes and Chain and wearing bright coloured clothing to be seen, closed in footwear and a well fitted helmet.

Sometimes it’s hard also for rural students to walk to school but many students are able to walk to the school bus and this is great for developing a sense of independence as well as improving fitness. Schools like Murrabit prioritise physical activity as part of the school’s education program so students have the opportunity to be fit and healthy during the school day. This helps keep students alert, improves learning outcomes and provides children with a strong foundation for developing life-long healthy habits. 

Tanya, a Community Health Nurse from Northern District Community Health, came along to talk to students about healthy habits and particularly how to look at food labels to see how much sugar is in processed foods and drinks. Students guessed how much sugar was in a range of drinks and were surprised that a 600ml bottle of Lift has slightly more sugar than a 600ml bottle of Coke – both have 16 teaspoons or more! Students also learnt that flavoured milks contain lots of sugar and even drinks that come in little packages such as Primas also have heaps of sugar – more than 5 teaspoons in fact!

 

There are lots of tricks that food manufacturers use to make people think that their product is a healthy option – words like real fruit, yoghurt top, low fat, natural or healthy. Sometimes these foods contain more sugar than others that are similar – a yoghurt topped muesli bar for example has almost twice as much sugar as a plain muesli bar. Tanya encouraged students to take a closer look at food labels at home and at school so they are better able to make healthy choices now and as they grow up.

Tanya said how important it is to eat well, drink well and brush well so as part of the talk she showed students how to brush their teeth using a soft brush, a dob of fluoride toothpaste, small circular movements taking special care to clean the inside, outside and tops of teeth and those big molars at the back where food can get stuck – singing under our breath ‘happy birthday’ twice and brushing morning and night will help keep our mouths healthy and smiling! We only get two sets of teeth in a life-time so it’s important to look after them. Healthy teeth help us to chew and to speak; to smile and be confident.

 

The theme for this year’s Walk to School program is Healthy and Active Living, so after learning all about what it takes to be Healthy, we got Active with Pia from the Gannawarra Library Service leading an energetic and fun laughter yoga session in the school stadium. Pretending to eat a whole pineapple followed by a sour lemon helped warm up our face muscles before things started to really warm up with a chicken dance, monkey dance and lawn mowing routine. This was interspersed by lots of very loud clapping and chanting of Ho, Ho, Ha, Ha, Ha! Laughter yoga was a great warm up for our Walk to School town tour walk organised by the Years 4-6.

 

 

Taking in the local Murrabit Public Hall (circa 1912 and moved to its present location in 1926), Murrabit Market (circa 1977), community mural showcasing many of the student’s artwork (circa 2011), and the Kerang-Murrabit-Stony Crossing railway (circa 1924) the walk was an informative and well researched tour of the Murrabit township. We learnt lots about each point of interest as students shared the pride they have for their community.

 

 

 

Following our walk, we all enjoyed cups of cold milk or water and platters of colourful fruit and vegetables. A big thank you to IGA Kerang, IGA Cohuna, Border Packers Koondrook and Rocky's Fruit and Vegetables Cohuna for the fresh fruit and vegetables and to Murray Milk for the delicious cold milk. Also to Gray's Bakery Kerang for the bread for our yummy brekky.

 

The Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program is rolled out across the Gannawarra Shire as a Gannawarra Local Agency Meeting (GLAM) partnership project. This is a partnership between Gannawarra Shire Council, Northern District Community Health, Kerang District Health, Cohuna District Hospital, Mallee District Aboriginal Service, Victoria Police, with support from the Southern Mallee Primary Care Partnership.
 

Walk to School is a VicHealth initiative. For more information go to: www.walktoschool.vic.gov.au.

 

The next Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School event will be held at Lake Charm on Friday 23rd October commencing at 9am. This will be a combined event between Lake Charm Primary School and Quambatook Group School. An official opening of the Lake Charm Community Garden Beds will also be incorporated into the event.