Message from the Deputy
Ngunnawal Plant Use book offer
As part of our School Beautification Project, we have been given a limited number of books about traditional Aboriginal Plant use for the Ngunnawal/ACT Region.
The book "Ngunnawal Plant Use: a traditional Aboriginal plant use guide for the ACT region" is a local field guide and information resource about plants that are suitable to the region.
If you would like a copy, please send a note or email to the front office, and we will distribute a book to the first 20 families.
We hope that you will make good use of the books, by sourcing endemic plants for your own gardens and increasing the planting project across the region.
Kind regards and happy reading and planting,
Ms Chris Hawkins Acting Deputy Principal and gardening enthusiast.
Energy drinks are not necessary at school
A healthy diet across the whole day helps all students to be alert and ready to learn. This includes consuming foods from a variety of food groups.
The use of caffeine to improve energy is not appropriate for school aged children, including high school students. As a Food Technology teacher with a background in nutrition, I am all too aware of the negative impact of caffeine on young bodies and brains, when this stimulant is consumed too early in life. This is also why energy drinks are not sold in schools.
Recently, we have seen some students bringing energy drinks to school. These often have the equivalent caffeine levels of many coffees, which over-stimulates the brain and is dangerous for health. In the largest study of its type in 2016 the Telethon Kids Institute found that of the children consuming energy drinks regularly ‘24.6 percent had experienced heart palpitations, 24.5 percent had had trouble sleeping or insomnia, 24.3 percent had headaches, and 24 percent had upset stomachs’.
Drinks containing guarana may create additional issues. Guarana is a plant that contains caffeine – 1 gram of guarana contains between 40 and 80mg of caffeine (an espresso contains 60mg caffeine). Guarana’s interaction with the other ingredients in energy drinks makes its effects last longer than caffeine.
It is also possible that having lots of caffeine can cause the bones to lose calcium, which increases the risk of broken bones during youth and into adulthood. A 2021 study in South Australia found ‘that high doses of caffeine (800 mg) consumed over a six-hour period almost doubled the amount of calcium lost in the urine’ and children and teenagers are at risk because their bones are still growing.
In both children and adults, too much caffeine can cause:
- nervousness
- irritability and anxiety
- difficulty sleeping
- tremor
- rapid heartbeat
- palpitations
- upset stomach.
We ask that families talk about healthy drink options for school with their children, so that all students can maximise their learning throughout the school day and encourage their children to limit the consumption of energy drinks to non-school days.
Further information about energy drinks and their impact on health can be found at
https://adf.org.au/insights/energy-drinks/
Kind regards and happy reading and planting,
Ms Chris Hawkins - Acting Deputy Principal and gardening enthusiast.