Looking after Mind and Body at Leitchville Primary School and Leitchville Preschool

Leitchville Primary School combined with the Leitchville Preschool this morning for a colourful Fruit Salad walk as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program. Children dressed in fruit salad colours to highlight the importance of eating a rainbow of fruit and vegetables every day to stay healthy and well. Three big bananas, a carrot and snowpea also joined in the fun!

It’s Mental Health Week and staying healthy and well, both physically and mentally, helps children develop lifelong healthy habits and improves learning outcomes.

Before going on our Fruit Salad walk we talked about the 5 Ways to Wellbeing and what we wanted to do and see while out walking. Connecting with some key people down the street at the Leitchville Store and the Leitchville Bakery were priorities as well as popping in and saying ‘Hi’ at Lipps Rural Supply Store. 

The 5 Ways to Wellbeing are easy things we can remember to do everyday to help keep us happy and healthy. We practiced all of these out on our walk: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give…

As we walked, we breathed in the fresh Leitchville air, saw some pretty flowers, birds and trees. Along the way we learnt to Stop, Look, Listen and Think! as we crossed the roads. Lots of people waved to us along the way and stopped to talk.

Connecting with our communities and the people around us improves our wellbeing. It also helps children to recognise their place in the community and be feel proud of where they live.

Back at school we all enjoyed a cup of water and yummy fruit and vegetable platters. There was crunchy celery and carrots, cucumber and little tomatoes that exploded in our mouths! There was cantelope, strawberries, apples, oranges, kiwifruit, and blueberries. In fact, there was every colour of the rainbow!

After a healthy snack the preschool children stayed on to enjoy playtime at school.

 

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.