Throughout the last year, our school has been working towards becoming an accredited ‘Kids – Go For Your Life’ school. Go For Your Life is an initiative of the Victorian government that, in schools at least, seeks to promote healthy eating and an active lifestyle. Noble intentions, I’m sure you can appreciate.

Today, Tuesday September 16th, our school officially launched the ‘Kids – Go For Your Life’ program with a nice little assembly and presentation after lunch. Throughout the last few terms, ten select students from grade five have been training to become Peer Leaders who’s responsibility will now be to organise and run active games and activities regularly throughout lunchtime periods for the rest of the school children. These kids were selected as leadership roles with the intention that, next year, they would be in grade six and able to run the program with little outside influence. Throughout that year, they would also train another group of grade five children to carry the program on again.

It was a good little session. The kids were right into it, there was a lot of excitement and colour, and with the many outside dignitaries of various circles invited and present, it certainly came across as a very important and significant achievement for the school. While I’ve already been focusing on healthy issues such as eating fruit after lunch, regular active sessions outside wherever appropriate, several laps of the oval each week and letting the kids drink water throughout the day while working, the launch pretty well won me over to the entire program. It will certainly help further promote a healthy lifestyle to the kids who come through the school in the future.

Whether they all take it on board is another matter, of course. Kids will be kids, eh?

Mind you, one issue with the program and its accreditation that sort of snuck up on us until only a few weeks ago when everything was in place was one little issue I disagree with.

No longer are we to give lolly rewards to the kids.

Yes. A lolly reward is against the Kids – Go For Your Life policy. Which is a little disappointing, but there’s little that can be done about it, eh?

I didn’t break the news to the kids until early last week, letting them know that at the end of this term (Friday), we will no longer have lolly rewards for their raffle ticket draw each Friday afternoon, or for winning table points each fortnight. They were a little snaky at the news, as you can expect, and I was honest and told them outright that I agreed with them.

One of the boys brought up the topic of Easter and Christmas. Did this mean no Easter Eggs the last day before the Easter holidays, and no candy cane given at the end of the year. Interesting thought. I think we might just make an exception for things like that. The kids thought that appropriate too, even if they didn’t necessarily agree with the complete removal of their lolly reward – five kids get one each week.

‘So even though we do all that running and activities outside and eat fruit after lunch and drink water all day, we’re not allowed to have half a musk stick when we win the raffle?’ one of the kids asked, which I think sums up the entire issue quite nicely.

‘No, mate, not any more.’

‘What about you? Can you have lollies then?’

‘Do you think I should be allowed to?’

‘No,’ they all answered rightly, ‘that wouldn’t be fair.’

I agreed quite happily. I wouldn’t be able to look them in the face if I did.

So by the end of the week we’re going to decide on what other rewards we can give for the five raffle tickets each week and the six table point winners each fortnight. It will probably end up being nice erasers and fancy greyleads or pens for them to use. Things like that.

Yes. It will cost me a fortune!

Not to worry though. Just play the gig. Don’t get involved in politics, just play the gig!

Related posts: Childhood Obesity – Don’t you dare rewards my kid with lollies!, The Easter Ferret

‘Most games are lost, not won‘ ~ Casey Stengel.

It’s that time of year. All manner of sports are culminating in that one final Saturday (or Sunday, but Saturday seems to be the cultural, ideological ‘day’ for stuff like this, so let’s not bicker, eh?) when two teams meet for one final, ultimate gladiatorial contest to see who earns the right to hold aloft that premiership token at the end.

Yes, it’s Grand Final season, and all over the place various sports have been winding up with grand final matches played on various weekends. Junior footy has drawn to a close, the netball season has concluded last weekend, and soccer and baseball wind up this weekend.

The last three weeks I’ve been to catch a few of them. Some of the boys from previous years kept me relatively up to date with their footy team’s progress, and three weeks ago I heard they had won their first final by a point. Their reward? A play off to reach the grand final the week after. Against a team they were fully expecting to be belted by. So I wandered down to watch them play a final and that would be that.

But they won. They held them out from the beginning and were never headed, and won their way into the grand final by five points. Yes, that stuffed up my following Saturday.

They played off the following week (half the kids missing for training because we sent the 5/6 grade to camp for the week!) in the grand final against the team that has been undefeated all season. And were done by eleven goals. In fact, their only goal came in the last quarter, but did we cheer it home when it sailed through!

You don’t go to watch the kids win, you go to watch them play.

So this morning, football over for the year, one of my class kids made it through to the soccer grand final. They were going for back to back premierships. I don’t particularly enjoy soccer, but I like the kid, so I wandered in to have a look.

A nil all draw at full time, so five minutes either end to decide the premiership.

Ten minutes later, nil all draw again, so both teams were awarded the joint premiership instead. To me, a suitable conclusion. Neither team deserved to lose after such a game, although they’ll need to get a second cup and set of medallions.

Sometimes victory is not letting the other bloke win.

Which brings us to tomorrow… a few of the kids play their baseball grand finals. I’ll have to find out Monday morning how they fare though. Father’s Day is tomorrow, and I doubt I could adequately explain to the old man why a bunch of 9 year olds pushed him out on his special day.

‘It isn’t the size of the gift that matters, but the size of the heart that gives it’.

~ Quoted in The Angels’ Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994.

Lunchtime had just finished today and we’d started our afternoon session. I’d sorted my kids out, packed them up and sent them on their way to Rotations. They’d visit two other rooms this afternoon for two different activities, and in return I’d have two different grades for music. We chanted rhythms and sang a few songs about Dads because it’s Father’s Day soon.

In rocks the kid I watch (and occasionally drive to and fro) at basketball with a plastic bag from the shop.

‘Okay, I’ll bite. What have you got there?’

‘This is for you, Mr V. Happy birthday!’

‘Um, mate… my birthday was a month ago now…’

‘Yeah, but I didn’t get a chance to get you something. So here it is.’

So in front of someone else’s grade I opened my belated birthday present (or, more accurately, pulled them out of the plastic bag. An Essendon Football Club key ring and an Essendon Football Club number plate surround for my car. He scampered back off to his own class again shortly afterwards.

It’s been two years since I taught him in grade four. It’s going to be bittersweet to see him graduate at the end of the year. With a bit of luck though he’ll still get me a basketball timetable for next year.

But first, I’ll have to watch his next game tomorrow night, eh?