St. Josephs Ready to Walk, Ride or Scoot to School

St. Joseph primary school students in Kerang headed back to school on Monday and are ready to walk, ride or scoot to school during October as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program.

This is the fourth year St. Joseph’s have participated - last year 98% of students walked, rode, skated or scooted 2072 times during October - that’s about 1488 kilometres - equivalent to walking from Kerang to Canberra and back!

For the second year St. Joseph students will compete against each other in an effort to win a Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy… The winning class of the Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy last year was GRADE 4 with 68% participation throughout Walk to School month.  Students in Grade 4 walked, rode, skated or scooted to school 493 times out of a possible 722, closely followed by Grade 5/6 with 56%, Grade 2/3 with 55%, Grade 1/2 with 47% and Prep with 44%.

Tanya from Northern District Community Health spoke about the importance of children being active and healthy and finding activities that they enjoy both at school and at home. Some popular activities were swimming and football, chasing the dog and playing on the trampoline; all great activities to get heart rates up and use lots of energy.

All eleven primary schools across the Gannawarra Shire are participating in this year’s Walk to School program with students encouraged to ride, walk or scoot to and from school, the school bus or while at school, throughout October.

The Walk to School program promotes the importance of children being Active and Healthy in their communities and fitting at least 60 minutes of physical activity into their daily lives. Getting actively to school, the school bus, or while at school not only helps keep children fit and healthy, it also helps them to stay alert, to concentrate and improves learning outcomes.

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: http://www.walktoschool.vic.gov.au/

 

Follow along with the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program: https://www.facebook.com/HealthyGannawarra
 

and our Gannawarra Walk to School BLOG: http://gannawarrawalkstoschool.blogspot.com.au/