Koondrook Primary School

October is Walk to School month and students at Koondrook Primary are busy walking to and from school, the school bus or twice around the school oval when they arrive at school. Students are diligently filling in their walking activity on classroom Walk to School calendars in an effort to increase their activity and fitness levels.

To encourage and support students to keep up with their walking throughout October, a special Walk to School event took place at the school on Thursday 8th October. It was great to have 10 children from Koondrook pre-school join with the 55 or so students from Koondrook Primary.

Coordinated by the Gannawarra Shire Council with support from local health agencies, the event focused on the theme of Healthy and Active Living.

Cr. den Houting kicked off the event by launching a new Gannawarra Ride2School media clip and encouraging all students to walk, ride, skate or scoot to school as often as they can. Walking, riding, skating and scooting not only builds healthy and strong bodies it also leads to children being more alert and ready to learn when they arrive at school.

 

 

Also important to children’s learning outcomes is the food and drinks they consume which help to ‘fuel’ their bodies. Leesa, a Dietician working for Northern District Community Health, provided students with a better understanding of the sugar in some of the common food and drinks consumed. Children guessed how much sugar was in different drinks and while some like Coke were no surprise, others did surprise us like orange juice, iced tea, primas and pop tops.  We also learnt that yoghurt topped muesli bars have twice as much sugar as plain muesli bars even though they look like a healthy option.
 

There are some good sugars though, in fresh fruit for example, that in addition to the sugar that helps fuel our brains provide lots of vitamins, minerals and fibre that help keep our bodies healthy and strong.

Sugar of course can also harm our teeth and LaTrobe University’s Dental Health School in Bendigo provided the sugar display for us to use as part of the Rural Engaging Communities in Oral Health project. This followed on from the Royal Flying Doctors Service visits to Koondrook Primary School as part of this project earlier this year with volunteer dentists reporting concern at the tooth decay they saw.

 

We only get two sets of teeth in a lifetime so looking after them is really important. The children enthusiastically participated in an interactive tooth-brushing demonstration with toothbrushes awarded as prizes. The demonstration provided children with practical skills for looking after their teeth.

 

Some of the things to help keep our teeth ‘smiling’ – a soft toothbrush, a dob of fluoride toothpaste (about the size of a pea), gently brushing morning and night taking extra time to clean the molars at the back as well as gently brushing the gums.

 

 

 

The event was followed by a 5 Ways to Wellbeing themed walk – Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. These are simple actions that everyone can incorporate into their everyday lives to support their health and wellbeing. 

 

 

A healthy lunch of milk, water, fruit and vegetable platters and toasted sandwiches refuelled our bodies. The yummy lunch was thanks to the generosity of the following local businesses: Border Packers Koondrook, Murray Milk, Rocky's Fruit and Vegetables Cohuna, Woolworths Kerang and Gray's Bakery Kerang.  

 

 

 

 

All children received a locally developed Walk to School bookmark and Walk to School ruler as constant reminders that: "It's Cool to Walk to School"

 

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 walktoschool.vic.gov.au.