Environment+and+Ethos

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Our team will bring to this day, a positive and healthy ethos which will support and extend Rushworth College’s current value system. The kind of values that we will be aiming to promote through the day will include healthy eating, the importance of physical exercise, inclusiveness, fair play and respect (for both individuals and the environment), staff health and welfare and friendly waste disposal. A school with a strong health/environment promoting ethos will have policies and procedures that relate to the following areas: Staff health & well-being programs, Occupational Health & Safety programs, development of teams and positive relationships, Sunsmart policy, areas for physical activity, healthy foods promoting canteen, Equal Opportunity policy, active Student Leadership, passive recreation areas, pastoral care and collaborative decision making processes. - Health Promoting School policy.doc

Rushworth College already has an excellent heath promoting ethos within the school and has policies that relate to many of the points above. Among the many things that Rushworth College does to promote health within the school include: Being a sunsmart school (children mush wear a hat when outside in the summer), having excellelent sports facilities such as indoor gymnasium, sports fields and shaded play areas. The school currently runs a healthy canteen and the Active After School Communities program encourages children to lead a healthy active lifestyle and composts its organic waste.

Rushworth College is currently participating in a Health Promoting Communities Project with the local Primary Care Partnership, local district health services and seven secondary schools. 2009 – 2010 will also see the College involved in the “Sowing the Seeds of Wellbeing” project involving five feeder primary schools, the Shire of Campaspe and Goulburn Valley Health []

On the day, we aimed to demonstrate a healthy ethos to the children through our manner and ideas, and hoped to leave them with a renewed sense of their place in the environment and the importance of a clear and positive school ethos. We lead discussion with the children to reinforce what a healthy ethos is and to make them aware of the kinds of things both they, and their school community can do to ensure that they live and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Real considerations that were made in order to adhere to the environment and ethos aspect of the health promotion schools framework included: talking to the students about the schools health promoting schools policy, encouraging physical activity in designated areas, showing the students healthy eating in practice, talking to the students about, and demonstrating respect for diversity in term of different peoples abilities and demonstrating and talking about the importance of a caring ethos in social interractions. We ensured that students and student teachers wore hats and sat in the shade for lunch. We helped to promote staff health and wellbeing be providing them with a healthy lunch.

One aspect that was somewhat overlooked was the impact that the teachers from Rushworth College could have had on the day. Throughout the day the student teachers controlled the activities and were the predominant authority figures. If we were to run the day again a greater level of participation by the Rushworth teachers would have been encouraged. Although the day was focussed on the students, another day that was to incorporate the regular teachers would be great as this would have encouraged them to include more aspects of heath promotion in their regular curriculum. A greater focus on positive re-inforcement from the teachers would also have benefited the students, as the main focus of discipline that I observed on the day seemed to be concentrated on punishments and putdowns. Modelling appropriate behaviour is a vital element in promoting a healthy, supportive school.