Starting off Term 3 very strong (insert PE joke). Mooroolbark College students and staff pushing through the depths of June and July Winter with the push up challenge. Led by Mr. Fox, students of all houses signed up for the challenge to earn house points and hopefully learn a few things about mental health along the way.
The goal was to complete 3,142 pushups or exercises in 24 days in June and July. That random number of required exercises was the same number of lives lost in 2022 to suicide.
Congratulations to Ngawan house who won it combining with 41, 644 exercises. Shout out to Darrang house who averaged the most pushups per entrant and raised the most money for Headspace.
As a school, we combined for over 120,000 exercises and raised almost $1000 for Headspace who are an organization who assist young people with mental health.
Below is some wonderful student feedback we received after being involved in the challenge.
“During my experience in the push up challenge, I have learnt many things, mainly about myself. I have learnt that I am stronger than I thought I was, both mentally and physically.”
“My depression and anxiety make it difficult to complete daily tasks such as brushing my teeth, showering and many more, so I took it upon myself to enter this challenge to get into a routine of doing something daily for myself in hopes that it could encourage and motivate me to accomplish basic daily tasks. In saying that I am proud to say that I have been doing those daily tasks much more often than I used to.”
“I was starting to be way more accepting of my body and understanding myself better than I used to. I felt that the push up challenge brought me closer to myself leading me to understand more about who I am as a person and I felt so proud every single day as I reached the goal.”
“I really enjoyed the push up challenge because it was a great way to respect families affected by suicide.”
We can not wait to be a part of this wonderful initiative again in 2025.
At Mooroolbark we pride ourselves on being a family and helping support our local community. This was evident in Miss Hubben’s Duke of Edinburgh class! When the local primary schools needed help umpiring their interschool sport day, the Duke of Ed class was more than happy to help out. My favourite observation of this day was the positivity of students to try something new even if they were part of a sport they have never played before. All students demonstrated exceptional leadership and took on this request with an open mind. A special mention to all of the students who volunteer to help out in a sport that they don’t usually play and Giselle for committing to the Push Up Challenge throughout the day.
Further along the Health and PE line we come to the Year 11 VM-Personal Development Skills class who have been studying different types of communities and health promotion programs. Some students suggested collecting food and donating to a charity. The wonderful volunteer Laurie came and visited our school from CIRE to collect our donations, encourage the students to volunteer and tell us more about his organization and the great support they provide to families in the Yarra Valley. It was a pleasure and a privilege to contribute to their community pantry where families in need can go and collect food from either of their 2 community hubs at Chirnside Park or Yarra Junction.
The Year 12 Health and Human Development students have also been busy preparing themselves to finish Unit 4 Area of Study 1 content. Class time is always a great opportunity to create new opportunities to connect with students they otherwise wouldn’t work with, so we attempted a short speed dating activity. Students were quizzed on their knowledge of the dimensions of sustainability and the differences between the types of sustainability using mini whiteboards. Students had 2 minutes to write their response before showing their partner. If they had the same answer, they received a point for themselves. If they had different answers, neither student scored. Students then rotated partners and shared their responses before starting again.
STEPHANIE TODD
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION KEY LEARNING HEAD
