Community minded: Hayden Beaton, Lisa Hueston, Adam Mohd Azhar, 7, and Ruby Sharp, 8, at Mooroopna Park Primary School.
In 2020, Mooroopna Park Primary School was recognised as having the best student well-being program in the country.
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This year, staff are aiming to have the same honour bestowed on them again.
The school has been handed an excellence award for its program, and is also in line for a Victorian Early Years student wellbeing award.
It’s wellbeing program is wide ranging, from a full-time chef who cooks breakfast and lunch and prepares morning and arvo tea, to a new school bus, and includes programs with speech pathologists, audiologists, hampers for families and more.
Need for speed: Laylah Goodman and Archie Johnson having a spin on the scooters.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Principal Hayden Beaton said it was nice for staff to be recognised for the program they had put together.
“Forty per cent of kids come to school for brekkie and then we provide morning and afternoon tea and a lunch, which is often a hot lunch but not always,” he said.
Food is donated by Food Bank, Plunkett’s Orchards, Mooroopna Bakery, Bakers Delight and more.
He said the changes had had a noticeable effect on the school in the past three or four years.
“The amount of [bad] behaviour we deal with now compared to four years ago is minimal,” Mr Beaton said.
“They’re just happy — classrooms are quiet places, busy little classrooms — and they’re definitely more engaged.
Hold on tight: Mason Zammit and Kayleigh Hollier on Mooroopna Park Primary School’s scooter track.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
“We’ve made improvement in so many areas, results and behaviour and more, but you don’t pinpoint it to one thing or two.”
Mr Beaton was a student at the school many moons ago, and took on the top job at Mooroopna Park a decade ago.
He said he was proud of the work the school had done in that time.
And it’s continuing to innovate, with a school bus trialled for the first time in term two, which was sponsored by Jacobson’s and has had an immediate impact.
“The bus has been picking up about 30 kids each morning to tackle attendance because some attendance hasn’t been great, and that’s shown improvement already,” Mr Beaton said.
On a roll: Mason Zammit, Archie Johnson, Kayleigh Hollier and Laylah Goodman flying down the hill on Thursday.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Mr Beaton and wellbeing co-ordinator Lisa Hueston said they loved taking hampers to families, too, which built a sense of community and also helped families doing it tough by delivering food and household goods.
“I love going around delivering the food hampers and the household goods because it's a good way to make connections with the families,“ Mr Beaton said.
One of the most popular new additions has been a scooter track, which students are able to use at recess and lunch, but teacher aides are also able to take students out for a quick “brain break“ for a quick lap or two to burn off energy.
The school will find out in August if its tilt at a second award has been successful, with the ceremony held that month in Sydney.
