FRANKSTON’S Overport Primary School is one of more than 2,500 Victorian schools and early childhood services using Healthy Places Healthy Futures (formerly the Achievement Program), the state’s refreshed and relaunched initiative to embed health and wellbeing into everyday school life, with the local school held up as one of its strongest examples. At Overport, which has around 700 students, Assistant Principal Jill Wathen said the biggest driver of change had been the school’s Student Health Ambassador program, established when the school joined the initiative seven years ago. The program gives a group of Year 6 students a leadership role in…
Author: Sarah Halfpenny
FRANKSTON Rovers Junior Football Club president, Aaron Gale, will spend the final weekend of the season on a bike, riding non-stop for 24 hours to raise funds for the club’s long-awaited redevelopment. Gale will set off from the club’s Bruce Park home at 6pm on Saturday 8 August, riding out to Mordialloc Pier and back on a loop until 6pm the following day. The finish coincides with the club’s Sunday home games, and Gale plans to swing back past the ground roughly every 90 minutes so players can be part of the event between matches. The ride is aimed at…
BRENDAN Wiseman works shifts at Cafe W in Seaford and Sages Café in Baxter as part of a hospitality career the 23-year-old has built over the past year. Wiseman, who lives with an intellectual disability, joined disability employment provider Wallara Australia after finishing school to explore different job paths. He has since gained experience in coffee-making, customer service and food safety. “It’s good for your mental health to interact with people. You don’t want to be isolated,” said Wiseman. “I’ve progressed in choosing what to say around people and increased my social network. It’s really good.” Wiseman has gained his…
A BOOK of five superheroes created by Frankston primary school students was launched on Thursday 9 July at Frankston Library, as a joint project between Anglicare Victoria’s Communities for Children Frankston program and Mission Australia. Finding your superpower: An adventure with Ash and friends tells the story of five characters representing environmentalism, learning, safety, health, and kindness. It was developed with the school children, and based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which sets out 54 rights for children worldwide. “It was an idea amongst the team,” said Communities for Children Frankston’s Erin Crockett. “It…
THE morning after his grandfather died, 16-year-old Jack Gilmour laced up his shoes and kept his promise. At 7:30am on Monday 29 June, just hours after his beloved ‘Poppa David’ passed away in hospital, the St Bede’s College Year 11 student set out from his Cheltenham home on the first day of his seven-day, 400,000-step fundraising challenge for Motor Neurone Disease. David’s final hours on Sunday 28 June had been spent watching his much-loved Kangaroos record a win. Jack had spent the preceding week visiting his grandfather in hospital. “He was aware of what was going on with my planned…