Reconciliation Action Plan News 

Relationships in the Classroom - Opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students 

We are now more than halfway through our Deadly Choices Healthy Lifestyle programme with Hollie and Sam from Karadi Aboriginal Corporation. 

Every week they hold two sessions for us, one with the Year 7 and 8 students and then a second session with our Year 9 and 10 students. We begin with a review of what we have learnt so far and then a slide presentation and discussion on a key topic surrounding health, the things that impact upon our health and the things we can do to remain healthy. So far, we have learnt about leadership and what makes a good leader, we’ve learnt about chronic disease, what it is and how we can reduce our likelihood of developing things such as diabetes and heart disease. We have learnt about the short and long-term impacts of smoking and what actually is in cigarettes, what they do to our bodies and why addictions are so destructive to society. We have learnt about nutrition and healthy eating and investigated the unexpected amounts of sugar in foods and drinks that sometimes seem healthy! 

This week we looked at the positive impact of sport and exercise and in the next two weeks we will be learning about harmful substances and positive relationships. Each session is presented safely and with strong cultural perspectives and after some personal goal setting, we go out and learn some great touch footy skills. 

The Karadi Deadly Choices team can still work with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their families beyond this programme, by inviting them to access the health services such as joining a gym group and being encouraged to get a 715 Aboriginal Health Check. The final school session will involve a combined gathering of all year groups together for a final touch footy match and a graduation ceremony where the boys with strong attendance and who have had their health check will receive their Deadly Choices footy T-shirt.