Presentation of Gannawarra Golden Shoe Trophies

Vying for a Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy provided extra motivation for classes at four local primary schools to walk, ride, skate or scoot to school throughout October as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program.

Trophies were presented to the winning classes at Kerang Christian College, Kerang Primary School, Kerang South Primary School and St. Joseph's Primary School.

Read all about the winning classes and their fantastic walking results below…

St Joseph’s Primary School

Drum roll please...And the winning class of the Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy at St. Joseph's Primary School was GRADE 4 with 68% participation throughout Walk to School month.

Cr. Brian Gibson presented the Golden Shoe to Declan and Amelia on Thursday 5^th November and the whole class celebrated their win!

Students in Grade 4 walked, rode, skated or scooted to school 493 times out of a possible 722.

Closely following was Grade 5/6 with 56%, Grade 2/3 with 55%, Grade 1/2 with 47% and Prep with 44%.

Well done to all students for their great walking throughout Walk to School month.

Kerang South Primary School

Cr. Brian Gibson was super excited to be at Kerang South Primary School's assembly on Friday 6^th November to present the Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy to the class who walked, rode, skated or scooted to school the most throughout October as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program.

Grade 3/4 were the winning class with 60% participation. Accepting the trophy were Tyler, Shamana, Kane, Grace and Bryce who all achieved 100% participation by getting actively to and from school every-day during October. What a great effort!

Full results: Grade 3/4 60%, Grade 5/6 (Ms Simmonds) 51%, Grade 4/5 49.5%, Grade 5/6 (Ms Sutherland) 48.7%, Grade 2 47.6%, Grade Prep/1 (Ms Goudie) 41%, Grade Prep/1 (Ms Teasdale) 39%, Grade 2/3 30% and Grade 1/2 23%. Well done everyone!

Kerang Primary School

Excitement was in the air on Thursday 12^th November at Kerang Primary School as students returned from their morning walk/run around the block.

Cr. Oscar Aertssen was present to announce the winners of the Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program...

 Drum roll please...

And the winners were "GRADE 2/3/4" with participation across Walk to School month of 58%. Second place went to Prep/1 with 55% and third place to Grade 5/6 at 49%.

Five students from the winning Grade 2/3/4 class actively travelled to and from school, or around a set circuit at school, 80% of the VicHealth Walk to School month of October walking 30 times out of the possible 38. Xander, Isabelle, Keifa, Abii and Bobbi accepted the Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy on behalf of their class. The week these students didn't mark walking activity on their VicHealth Walk to School calendar was when they were on school camp at Queenscliffe - they did however do lots of walking while there exploring the beachside village and playing on the sand.

 Well done to all students for their efforts in getting actively to and from school, or the school bus, throughout the month. Keep up the great walking...

Kerang Christian College

Two classes at Kerang Christian College competed against each other in an effort to win a Gannawarra Golden Shoe trophy as part of the Gannawarra Vic Health Walk to School program.

The winning year level was announced by Cr. Oscar Aertssen at a special ceremony on Thursday 12^th November.

The end result was extremely close - and the WINNERS - "Year 5/6" with participation across the month of 98.5% closely followed by Year 3/4 with 95.2%. A fantastic effort by both year levels....

Not everyone has the opportunity to walk or ride to or from school, or the school bus, so in recognition of this Kerang Christian College supported all students to walk or run every-day while at school around a 500 metre circuit. This is a great way for all children to participate in the VicHealth Walk to School Program and to improve their fitness and their health, wellbeing and learning.

Students were encouraged to keep up the effort all year round.

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.

 

Ride2School Media Clip Launched

Three Gannawarra primary schools - Kerang Primary School, Kerang South Primary School and Cohuna Consolidated School - participated in National Ride2School Day activities in March 2015.

As a result, Gannawarra Shire Council applied for and received a $5,000 Bicycle Network Victoria grant. This was one of only two grants awarded across Victoria.

The funding was used to develop a Gannawarra Ride2School media clip with students at the three schools enthusiastically participating in the filming process.

The clip has been launched at all eleven Gannawarra Primary Schools as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program throughout the month of October.

To view the clip:

Healthy October at Lake Charm

For the whole month of October, students from Lake Charm Primary School have focused on Healthy Living adopting the theme 'Healthy October'.

The majority of students travel by bus to the small school located in the Kerang Lakes district. This makes it difficult for students to walk or ride to school as part of participating in the VicHealth Walk to School program. But each morning students and teachers have walked or jogged 1.6 kilometres. Fitness levels have increased as the month has progressed and after three weeks they report feeling much healthier.

Students have put together three media clips to promote healthy and active living. It's great to see them taking an active role promoting the importance of healthy lifestyles. Take a look at their clips:

Exercise:

TV usage:

SunSmart:

Students have also developed a Healthy October brochure to encourage all people to eat Healthy Foods, Exercise more, to stay Hydrated by drinking water and to be Sunsmart by remembering to Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide! Very important messages as the weather warms up.

St. Joseph's Primary School

St. Joseph’s, along with all other primary schools across the Gannawarra Shire, have encouraged children to get out and about walking, riding, skating and scooting to and from school or the school bus throughout October as part of the Gannawarra VicHealth Walk to School program.

Developing a sense of independence, connecting with friends and taking notice of the world around them provides important learning opportunities for children. Walking or riding to school, or the school bus, is a great way to start the day and arriving at school alert and ready to learn is an added bonus!

On Friday 30^th October a special event was held at the school to celebrate the benefits of living a healthy and active life.

Cr. Brian Gibson came along and launched the new Gannawarra Ride2School media clip and encouraged all students to continue to actively travel to and from school, or the school bus, as often as they can throughout the year. It’s a great way for children to establish life-long healthy habits. Learning about road rules and pedestrian safety is also really important with children encouraged to Stop, Look, Listen and Think!

Making choices that support an active and healthy life as children grow is also important and making the right choice can be a bit challenging in today’s age where marketing tricks make products appear healthier than they actually are. So, as part of the event, Tanya, a Community Health Nurse with Northern District Community Health led an interactive talk about sugar in food and drinks.

Sugar is essential for brains and bodies to receive the energy needed to function but getting this sugar from natural sources like apples and oranges is much better for us than getting sugar out of a bottle or packet. Did you know that 4 grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon? Students were encouraged to practice their maths by taking a closer look at drink labels and looking out for quantities. Even a small drink like a prima contains 5 teaspoons of sugar! We played a game of matching sugar bottles to drinks on a board. A 600ml bottle of Coke has 64 grams of sugar, Lift has 66 grams of sugar and Sunkist has 70.8 grams of sugar – that’s more than 18 teaspoons of sugar! Even an iced tea has almost 8 teaspoons and a Dare iced coffee more than 11 teaspoons!

The same of course applies to food. Don’t be tricked by words on the box or packet as food manufacturers are very tricky at making their product look like a healthy option. Words such as real fruit, yoghurt top, low fat, natural or healthy don’t necessarily mean that the product is a healthy option. 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!

If we eat too much sugar and don’t use all that sugar during the day it converts to fat in the body and eventually may cause us to become overweight and lead to some nasty health issues like Diabetes and Heart Disease. Too much sugar makes us feel tired and lacking in energy so it’s important to eat a balanced diet based on the essential food groups – Fruit, Vegetables, Grains, Dairy and Meat.

Sugar feeds bacteria in our mouths and can lead to tooth decay so Tanya explained how to brush our teeth properly. A soft brush, a dob of fluoride toothpaste and two minutes morning and night is all that’s needed. A healthy mouth and teeth help us to feel confident, to speak and to chew. We only get two sets of teeth in a life-time so it’s important to look after them! Use 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. Brushing the tongue is also important to remove some of those germs and to keep our breath smelling fresh.

Karyl from Kerang District Health came along to talk about the importance of being active every-day. If we are active our bodies are fit and strong, we don’t get sick as often and sleep well at night. We are also more likely to be happy because exercise releases some beneficial chemicals into our bloodstreams that help us to feel good about ourselves. Karyl said it was great to see so many children out and about walking and riding in Kerang and showed the children easy, free and fun exercises to build up their muscle strength like bicep curls, shoulder lifts and stretching by doing push ups or working the large muscles in the legs by sliding slowly down a wall.

Karyl’s exercises were a great way to warm up for a walk around the block.

 

Back at the school we enjoyed a healthy fruit snack of watermelon, apples and bananas donated by Rocky’s Fruit and Vegetables Cohuna and juicy local oranges provided by Border Packers Koondrook. We also had yummy cold glasses of milk provided by Murray Milk or an icy cold cup of water.

 

 

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.