For Life Education CEO NSW Jonathon Peatfield, Tuesday's visit to Uralla Central School held a touch of deja vu as he remembered a Life Education caravan visiting Armidale's Martin's Gully School when he was a student there about 25 years ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jonathon said Life Education was partnered with Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation.
"The foundation has funded an revamp of our vans here that have been in our area for about 10 years now," he said.
"We've reached around 30,000 kids, and today at Uralla were running a couple of sessions around minding your medicine - so, different behaviours around your medicines.
"Also, how they can improve their support networks, looking at healthy eating and the dangers of smoking etc.
RELATED READING:
He said programs were run with primary and preschool children, and teachers were left with in-classroom resources for ongoing learning while parents were given session overview resources.
"The earlier we can start that education process the better," Jonathon said.
"As we move up the age groups we change the content to be more age appropriate.
"In general, we look at nutrition, core food groups and healthy eating, exercise, supportive groups and networks, so that they've go people they can trust and go to in times of need. We also look at cyber security and bullying, respectful relationships, smoking programs and drug and alcohol sessions."
Jonathon said Life Education was all about delivering children an education over and above the classic maths, science and English.
Founded in 1979, Life Education was conceived by the Reverend Ted Noffs from his work at the Wayside Chapel, where he witnessed Australians struggling to understand how to deal with an exploding problem of Illicit drug use, and how the health and social issues impacted on the lives of children.
To date, about 7 million young Australians have participated in the program.
