Policies

Home Policies and Ethos/Environment
 * __ Policies __**

Currently Stanhope Primary School does not have any relevant Physical and Health Education policies in place, however the school does have bullying, harassment and the sunsmart policies which were adhered to on the ‘Step into Health Day’, and implemented by the La Trobe University students whenever applicable.

The Bullying and Harassment Policy states that ‘Stanhope Primary School believes that it is the responsibility of all members of the school community to ensure our school provides a safe and caring environment' (Document provided by the Stanhope Primary school August 18, 2009). The La Trobe student teachers attempted to ensure the environments in which their lessons were taught were safe environments that supported and cared for the students of Stanhope Primary School.

The Behavioral Management Policy the Stanhope Primary School has in place emphasizes on positive attitude and behavior in relationships as well as adhering to the school's aim to promote the growth and development of the student as an individual within the community. The La Trobe students followed this policy by encouraging and assisting in the development of healthy relationships within the school community between students and teachers. If a student chose to engage in behavior that placed other students at risk during the step into health day they were removed from the situation and their right to participate in the activity was removed, in accordance with the schools policy. On the step into Health activity day the students of Stanhope Primary School were generally well behaved with only a few minor problems arising. These problems were usually related to the student’s level of competiveness in relation to the games they were playing. The students all behaved at an acceptable level on the day towards the visitors and their peers.

The Sun smart policy that is adhered to in all Victorian schools states that, ‘children and staff are required to wear hats that protect their face, neck and ears’. All La Trobe students acted at role models on the day, wearing hats and sunglasses outdoors. This policy was relevant on the day because the majority of the activities were held outdoors. If the weather had have been better we could have implemented this policy further by directing the students to wear sunscreen and re-apply it at regular intervals throughout the day.

Additional policies that the school may benefit from are:

1) The Healthy Canteen Policy This policy has been developed to assist students to be able to make healthier food choices at school and in life. The policy states that the food in which the students eat during school hours contributes significantly to their daily nutrient intake. Providing students with healthier choices at school will influence their eating habits, growth patterns and their energy levels. This is a whole school approach that involves input from students, teachers and parents. These guidelines follow the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia.

2) Ride 2 School Is a government-funded program that aims to increase the number of students who walk or ride to school each day. The program works with the schools to help develop their own Ride2School activities and supports and encourages the students to ride and walk to school more often.

3) The school did not have a current Physical and Health Policy in place; I believe it would be of great benefit to the students and the community if the school developed such a policy. A policy could be developed using the Healthy Promoting Schools policy as a guide; this policy and framework were used to develop the Stepping into Health activity day. The policy focuses on developing a whole school approach through the curriculum, ethos and environment and through the partnerships and services within the community. By developing a policy the school could outline some future goals and ambitions for physical and health education. This approach could continue to use the knowledge and skills shown by the La Trobe students and assist in developing the student’s knowledge when making decisions towards future exercise and eating. Stanhope Primary could develop this policy further by developing solid relationships and partnerships with the community and its members.

Overall the La Trobe students of Bendigo positively contributed and adhered to the policies the school currently has in place when conducing the Step into Health Activity day. The school could benefit in the future if physical and health education policies were developed and followed.

The following websites contain useful policies the Stanhope Primary School may wish to use as guidelines when developing their own policies to implement in future curriculums to ensure all students live health and active lifestyles are:

[|www.goforyourlife.vic.gov.au/hav/articles.nsf/pracpages/Go_for_your_Health_Canteens_Advisory_Service?Open]

[|www.schoolcanteens.org.au/healthy-school-canteens]

[|www.goforyourlife.vic.gov.au/hav/article.nsf/pages/Go_for_your_life_Ride2School_program?Open]

[|www.goforyourlife.vic.gov.au/hav/articles.nsf/practitioners/The_health_promoting_schools_framework?Open]

**__Ethos and Environment__**

A school’s ethos underpins the beliefs and values and any smart, positive policy that a school has introduced into their curriculum, for example sun-smart, anti-bullying, walking school bus and buddies. The school ethos allows teachers, students, parents and community members to work together in reaching a number of goals. A school’s goals are based around being beneficial to the school community as a whole and to also help the individuals as well. As for environment and what it has to do with a school includes the physical surrounds and also the individual. How they feel within their environment is most important, which is why most schools do and should aim for their school environment to be welcoming of each student as an individual and help students have a sense of security within their school environment. As Stanhope PS does not have there own ethos and environment policy when conducting our healthy activity day as a group we will design and apply through our skills, knowledge, leadership and activities a school environment that allows every child to grow socially and academically to reach their goals and full potential. The healthy activity day we have developed for Stanhope PS will allow trust to develop, of ourselves, the students, staff and the community, through interactive games and activities, competent leadership and by adhering to policy requirements. Our goals are to develop a healthy activity day and new policies along with it that allow the Stanhope PS community to take on and use for the future of their school and community. Ø Find out school’s own ethos policies so we don’t stand over their policies Ø If they have not developed one, we can develop our own incorporating: · Team work · Positive encouragement · Providing support for work mates, school mates Ø Provide school with activities on our Healthy Schools Activity Day with ongoing activities and policies to increase the knowledge and health of school community Ø Include strategies that allow the school to work with outside health professionals in nutrition and exercise <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Ø <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Include the ethos policy in our Healthy Activity Day so school community can see it in action <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Ø <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Find out boundaries and areas of school and remove potential hazards around planned activity area. These include: <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">§ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Playgrounds <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">§ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Ovals <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">§ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Sporting equipment <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">§ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Other Activity Areas <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Ø <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Notify students of the school boundaries for the planned activity areas <span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Ø <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">When the activity is a game, highlight rules of games, how feedback can be used and also how to play fairly. On the day of our Healthy Promotion Day each activity aimed to increase student’s awareness of health promotion through interactive fun activities. Each activity run on the day had individual differences relating to the ethos and environment that incorporated team-work, peer education, teacher and student interaction and safety. The activities prompted student’s to work with different individuals of all ages tackling anti-bullying relationships, other activities promoted developing new skills and creating a school environment that was colourful, attractive and welcoming, enabling every student to feel a part of the school community. As a group we made sure each activity would have positive outcomes under the ethos and environment guidelines. In the Hockey activity we used the tiger turf. Hockey was a non- traditional sport and was a great activity for the student’s to learn because it was different to the traditional sports of netball and football. Hockey promoted physical activity through a different way and we aimed to hopefully change student’s attitudes of physical activity through hockey, because netball and football are very big in the schools area and not everyone likes these sports, hockey was a perfect activity to raise student’s positiveness towards the game and to be physically activity. Under the ethos and environment we took precautions to safety of the students making sure there was plenty of room to move and instead of using traditional hockey balls we just used soft tennis balls. In the Herb Garden activity conducted in their own garden the activity aimed to encourage healthy choices when it came to healthy eating. Working in groups to harvest and plant the herbs, this situation encouraged the students to work with new partners each time, to develop positive relationships and cancel out bullying. Each student got the chance to plant their own seeds which this promoted a sense of ownership and inclusiveness to each student within the school community because they had something to look after and be proud of from a school activity. In preparing for the activity, we made sure that the proper utensils were on hand for gardening i.e. gloves to protect against stinging needles and any bugs that may bite. Skipping was included on the day to promote physical activity through another non-traditional activity. Student’s were encouraged to interact with each other in learning different ways and tricks to skip, because skipping is easy and ropes are accessible at the school this activity was great to promote physical activity and if student’s took to the activity and enjoyed it, which most did, the health benefits are great. A part of the precautions we took for this activity included having a large safe area were the student’s could skip on, and we made sure the ground was even, so there were no injuries to ankles and knees. The perfect area was on the down ball courts, and we also planned for rain and when it did we moved into a big room that catered for two activities at once enabling the skipping activity to continue. Orienteering was a huge activity that required communication between student’s, teachers and our group to make sure it was successful. Orienteering was a whole new activity to the Stanhope students and promoted team work between older and younger students, promoting positive relationships, creating positive communication and developing new skills. For the safety of the student’s we had to set boundaries and markers as to where to go so the safety of the student’s was not compromised and the activity remained a great idea. Planning for rain we took the students inside and played games that still taught the students the numerous fruits and vegetables. Step Class was another non-traditional activity that as a group we introduced to the student’s to promote healthy activity through different avenues other than walking and running. The step class was an individual activity were student’s got the chance to follow instructions and work on and develop new skills such as hand-foot and eye coordination. Although step class is not an easy access activity for primary school student’s, the idea of the activity being included was to give the teachers a chance to see a different form of teaching pe and health. Under ethos and environment because it was an individual activity and required coordination we really emphasised positive feedback towards each other and safety such as correct footwear. Bean Bags were conducted inside the classroom to help demonstrate activities that can be done within a classroom either in free time or on a wet weather timetable. The bean bags aim to promote hand-eye coordination and are a little easier to throw and catch for student’s still developing their skills in this area, the activities provided allows for students to develop reading and following instructions skills. As part as the ethos and enviro guidelines we as a group had to make sure to set rules on where to throw the beans bags, i.e. missing the projector. Another issue was creating a supportive environment and using positive feedback rather than making fun if some student’s struggled to throw and catch. To continue this activity into the future our group developed three resource boxes for each classroom with 19 bean bags and cards with instructions on what to do for each activity. Through our activities on the day we exposed the students and teachers to new and non-traditional activities and sports that promote physical health and living. As said before the main sports within this area is netball and football, we aimed to show students and teachers different ways to be active and live healthy lifestyles through different activities promoting a positive ethos and environment As part of a successful ethos and environment in a school it is important to “provide students with a positive school environment that provides safety, security and support, and promotes student well-being to facilitate learning” (Handbook 2 //Ethos). Our activities we developed with the future of the students in mind all included safety considerations, security within the school community, support from peers and teachers and gave the students a sense of belonging within the school community because of their participation. Through following on with these activities listed and developing their own health promotion ideas the students will continue to develop understanding of why and how to live a healthy lifestyle.
 * __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">What is ethos and environment? __**
 * __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">What we need to do to enhance Stanhope PS ethos: __**
 * __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">What can we do in terms of environment at Stanhope Primary School? __**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">

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