Kwinana kids get healthy choices education

More than 1800 Kwinana school children have taken part in education programs aimed at empowering them to make safe and healthy choices around cyber safety, smoking, drugs and alcohol during 2017.

With financial support from the Alcoa’s Kwinana Refinery, primary students, parents and teachers in Kwinana have had access to Life Education and its Mobile Learning Centres that visit schools with mascot, Healthy Harold the Giraffe.

Life Education is Australia’s largest non-government preventative education provider in health, drugs and alcohol.

Life Education executive officer Bernie Foley said the aim of the mobile learning centres was to build on the capability of young people by challenging their values and attitudes, expanding their knowledge and developing their skills to encourage more informed and healthy lifestyle choices.

“We find that getting kids out of the classroom into a different environment for a while helps to keep them more focused, increases their interest in the topics presented and increased interaction with our educators,” he said.

Parents are also encouraged to visit the Mobile Learning Centre while based at the school and are given access to online resources continually updated to reflect the latest research and topics children are learning about.

“Life Education programs reinforce the work done by school teachers and encourage parents to continue the conversation about health and safety with their kids at home,” Mr Foley said.

Alcoa Kwinana Alumina Refinery community relations officer Scott Hansen said Alcoa was delighted to have the opportunity to support Life Education.

“The feedback from schools participating in these programs has been incredibly positive and teachers have indicated that there is a great need for education of this type in their schools,” he said.