This is one of the best ideas I've seen yet for teaching health to students (assuming it doesn't interfere with or postpone college.
Trim 'n' taught to fight obesity
Braden Quartermaine
October 28, 2006 12:00pm
A PERTH school has launched a groundbreaking program to help a generation of overweight and unfit students turn their lives around.
Cecil Andrews Senior High School, in Armadale, has devoted the entire Term 4 curriculum for Year 9s to ``healthy lifestyles'' education.
The program includes daily circuit training, aerobics, tai chi and yoga, combined with health and nutrition education in every subject area.
The program has been running two weeks, but teachers are already reporting that students are better behaved and more relaxed and attentive.
Social studies and English teacher Dawn Blundell devised the program because she was concerned about students' health and the impact on their learning.
"I'm not trying to change the world,'' she said. ``But just as a mother, as well as being a teacher, when I read that this generation of kids would probably be the first to not live as long as their parents, that scared me a little.
"It's not just any particular school that has kids with these problems, it's right across the whole generation.
"Let's not wait until these kids are becoming a health statistic. Let's try to change their way of thinking now.''
In the innovative program, the whole school day is used to help fight fat.
The students are taking their fitness measurements in physical education, analysing the movie Super Size Me in English and in social studies looking at the social issues surrounding obesity.
Science lessons are on the digestive system, in maths they have been analysing fitness measurements, in cooking classes learning healthy recipes and in Italian lessons studying the food and culture.
The school is also replacing canteen junk food with healthier food. Pies and sausage rolls have become once-a-week treats instead of a daily staple.
"We've had a mixed response (to the changes) and some kids are bucking it, but it's going to be a gradual process,'' Ms Blundell said.
Obesity fight in Australia school 
Linear Mode
