Road safety

It seems everyone is adopting the Health Promoting Schools Philosophy within their work! The New Zealand Transport Agency has just launched their new online Road Safety resources, and guess what, it too features a whole school approach.

The new website can be accessed here.

McCain Veggie Patches

The McCAIN Vege Truck visited our school to give us some advice on how to get the best out of our vegetable gardens. Tony, the vege man, spoke to the envirogroup about what to plant, when to plant, and how to care for the veges as they grow.

The McCAIN Truck

Our Back Gardens. Tony gives Whaea Karen a few tips.At the Community Garden

Now this is a simple message about getting outdoors!

Last Friday was Alphabet Day at Selwyn School! Each class had a letter of the alphabet that they drew out of a hat. Children participating came to school dressed up as something beginning with that letter. Most of the staff participated too. Everyone who joined in on the day also brought a gold coin donation for the Student Health Squad 'Shade' Fund. We made $200.00! Woohoo!

Whaea Carey also sold some greeting cards that were donated to us, at the Saturday Garage Sale and raised another $60.00.

We have now passed the $1,000 mark!

Our Visit To Oderings Garden Centre

Today the Student Health Squad visited Odering Garden Centre to find out about evergreen shade trees for our adventure playground.

We found out about Rhododendron trees and Magnolia trees. They have beautiful flowers and keep their leaves all year round, so if we plant them close to the playground they won't make a huge mess all over our equipment in autumn.

When they are established they should grow big enough in 3-4 years to give us shade that will help protect us from harmful UV rays.

If we sink some sort of barrier into the ground we will be able to direct the trees roots away from the playground so they won't damage the matting.

When the trees are still small we will need to protect them with stakes and wind break cloth so they won't get damaged. We think we will paint the wind break cloth with pictures so it looks good.

If we plant our trees this spring, they will have the Christmas school holidays to settle in before the students come back and start playing around them.

NEXT STEP:

Now we need to draw a plan of where the trees will go and what we want the area to look like when it is established. We'll keep you posted.

Introducing Manaaki!

Hi Everyone
My name is Manaaki and I have joined the Selwyn School Student Health Squad.
I am going to visit classes and find out what healthy things the students and teachers of my school get up to. I have a diary that children can write and put photos in, of all my adventures. I will blog my adventures too, so you can see what I find out about health at Selwyn.