Health & Wellbeing News
Art Activity Ideas for the School Holidays!
Our Art Therapist’s have collated 5 easy, low-cost and fun creative activities for you and your child to try these school holidays. These art activities aim to engage our students with nature, encourage creative thinking, offer opportunities for relaxation and focus, and most importantly: HAVE FUN!
Art making can offer us many benefits including helping us to self-regulate, express ourselves, build dexterity skills, practice communication skills, and promote our general wellbeing.
Click the PDF link below to access our art activities sheet with step-by-step instructions and pictures. Please share your artworks with us when you return, we would love to hear about all your creative adventures!
COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY
With the school holidays now a week away, I have included a copy of our Community Resource Directory which contains contact names and numbers for a variety of Sporting Clubs and Community Activity Groups located in the Brimbank and Melton municipalities. All of these organisations have worked with students from Jackson School over the last few years. In 2021 State Government research into community activity, found that the Brimbank municipality had one of the lowest participation rates in the state. If you are new to our school, and you are involved with other sporting or community activity groups not listed in our directory, feel free to contact me at the school or forward details to our office staff and I will update it.
HEALTH AND FITNESS TERM 1
Active Schools Morning Fitness Sessions with Jarrod Borg from Spectrum Health
Close to 60% of students from Years 2-12 are now regularly participating in morning fitness sessions with Jarrod and myself. Last year at the same time, we were experiencing a 50% participation rate from students in Yrs 2-10. Expansion into the VPC and ASDAN classes has proved to be really successful, with VPC students participating at a rate of over 60%. The highest participation rate in the school. Well done VPC!
Active Schools Coaching Programs
After a successful application for additional funding at the end of last year, we have now commenced specialised coaching programs for all students in Yrs 7-10. Our local Tennis Coach, Darren Ha from DHA Tennis Academy in St Albans, is offering 45 minute tennis training sessions every Monday and Wednesday. Local Football coach Djibril Diallo (and father of Yr 10 student Mamadou Diablo), is on-site offering football coaching sessions for interested students. Finally, we have employed a group of local Hip-Hop dance instructors offering dance sessions for students. This instruction is proving to be wildly popular amongst our students. Once again, they are all on-site two days a week and in the next three terms we will look at increasing access to these wonderful coaches and instructors.
Sporting Schools Coaching Sessions
Over the course of this first term, we have had Football, Basketball and Tennis coaching sessions available for all students from Yrs 3-10. They have presented a four-week coaching program in their individual sports. These sessions were made available through the Australian Federal Government and the Australian Sporting Commission, Sporting Schools Program. Dependent on further successful funding requests, coaching in a variety of sports will continue in the coming three terms.
