Health & Wellbeing News
This term, GMP has started for students in Prep, Grade 1 + Grade 2. It is being run by Jack (Teacher), Janine (Allied Health Assistant) and Tess (Occupational Therapist). This term, we are focused on getting used to the new routine(s) + staff, supporting a safe and fun environment, and completing gross motor assessment components to help guide our program! We hope the students have a fun time.
Coaching programs in Basketball, Tennis, and Soccer have commenced this week for students from Years 2-10. Sports Coaching is available to Jackson students via funding from the Federal Governments Sporting Schools Program which will enable us to provide specialised coaching for all students from Year 2 to Year 10 in a variety of sports. Sporting Schools is a $320 million Australian Government initiative designed to help schools increase children's participation in sport and connect them with community sport opportunities. It helps students build the confidence and capability to be active for life. Jackson School has had access to this funding since 2021.
Over the course of the year, we will look at bringing in coaches from other mainstream sports such as AFL, Ultimate Frisbee Taekwando and NRL.
Active Schools Program-Morning Health and Fitness Sessions Health and Fitness sessions have also resumed for 2024. Students from Year 2-Year 12 at Jackson get an additional 50 minutes of fitness and physical activity each week under this program in addition to the 50 minutes of regular Physical Education sessions. Students at Jackson who choose to participate in the many physical activities provided at recess and lunchtime can accumulate another 300 minutes of physical activity for the week, and students involved in community sporting teams and clubs will have even more via training and club matches.
The Australian Governments Department of Health recommends at least an hour a day, 60 minutes of physical activity for students aged between 7 and 17. Over the week that amounts to 420 minutes. Not all our students however will cover that amount of time and therefore I would like to encourage you to have a look at what sporting and physical activity clubs and groups are available in your suburb for your son or daughter. In the next newsletter, I will include a directory listing several local sports clubs and community groups that families at Jackson are already involved with.
As well as our Health and Fitness sessions resuming, there is an opportunity for students in Years 2-12 to take part in 30-min fitness training sessions every Monday and Friday mornings. These are conducted on-site by Jarod Borg, a local personal fitness trainer, along with myself. Separate sessions are held for male and female students.
Whilst most students are bringing well-thought out and nutritious snacks for recess and lunch, there are a few that cause us some concern. The ones that concern us the most, are the ones that don’t offer a lot in terms of nutritional value. The others that concern us are the ones that seem to be full of pre-packed, low nutritional value snack packs which in turn can be quite expensive. Whilst we acknowledge that it can be quite difficult to introduce new foods for some children (my own son, when he was little insisted on a Nutella sandwich for his lunch-along with some fruit-it took about four years for him to eventually come up to me and tell me that he could not look at another Nutella sandwich), here are a few ideas and resources that may assist you.
This recipe is from a web-site called Australia’s Best Recipes. It is free to join and has a huge selection of tasty, affordable, and practical recipes for the whole family. The website is located at: www.bestrecipes.com.au
Today I will share one of the many ideas for children’s lunchboxes found at the link below. When you get to the page, you click on the image of the particular item and it will show you the list of ingredients, the recipe and the procedure for preparing the dish.
Lunch box recipes for kids: 31 back-to-school lunches | Australia's Best Recipes