School to focus on healthy living

– Tania Martin
OLINDA Primary School is teaching students the importance of healthy living.
Jorg Kiene school principal said the school is combining its two curriculums of mainstream and Steiner education together into a program that will focus on the wellbeing and health of the children.
The change comes after a year of turmoil for the school with the loss of a teacher because of a funding shortfall.
In March, a number of parents pledged their willingness to take out individual personal loans to help the school come up with $60,000 it needed to maintain its current teaching staff.
But in the end the school didn’t accept the pledge because it was considered unfair to put the parents into a position where they might be put under a financial burden.
Mr Kiene said the cash shortage wasn’t created by a government funding cut but came about because the school hadn’t been able to attract enough students.
However, the Department of Education maintained that the school had a good teacher-to-student ratio, with one teacher to every 15 students.
The problems with funding and the need to maintain the number of teachers come after the school incorporated a Steiner stream program alongside its mainstream education classes.
Steiner education is usually offered in the private schooling system but Olinda Primary School took up the initiative to combine the two streams together in 2005.
Despite the parents and school raising $11,000 a teacher left the school in June after months of fundraising because the school had hit a funding shortfall.
Mr Kiene said the school is now combining the principles of the Steiner stream with mainstream education in one curriculum.
He said the school is incorporating the principles to live, learn, create, give and grow into its curriculum along with the academic subjects of mathematics and English.
The principles will focus on aspects of creative and mental wellbeing including healthy eating and lifestyles, culture, art, treating people with compassion and understanding and mental health.
Mr Kiene said the staff at the school have done a wonderful job pulling all the aspects of Steiner and mainstream educations together.
He said the school’s enrolment numbers are also increasing.