In late 2014, a clever student in Vasiti Ratusau’s Stage 5 PDHPE class at Sarah Redfern High School had a light bulb moment and exclaimed, “I get it Miss, PE IS LIFE”.
It is this value that we as PE teachers try to instil in our students.
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PDHPE is more than just sport and the body systems, it is a subject that empowers its students to make better lifestyle and health choices, in the hopes of living longer healthier lives.
A significant aspect of this ideal is our Preliminary (Year 11) PDHPE focus area on Health Promotion.
Throughout this unit, the students analyse the various levels of responsibility for promoting health in Australia, the impact on our population’s health and explore current health initiatives, such as ‘Footy Colours Day’ run by the Fight Cancer Foundation.
It was clear, that although Year 11 understood the theory behind health promotion, they needed to see a health initiative at work around them to truly understand its impact and know that they could play a role, as one of our students, Mena Leuluai states:
“This year in Senior PDHPE, we have been learning the importance of health promotion.
“Earlier in Term 1, our Senior PDHPE class was given the opportunity to turn what we have been learning in class on health promotion into action by making videos to promote and justify the need to run a Footy Colours Day.
“Our video and campaign was successful and our school will be participated in ‘SHOW YOUR COLOURS DAY’.
“We now know that, in order for health promotion to be successful, EVERYONE needs to be involved.
“Especially as young people, we need to be taking a more proactive role in our health. “
The Year 11 class filmed and edited a number of health promotion videos that encourage our school to take part in ‘Show your Colours Day’.
A mufti day has been a very rare occurrence at our school with the last event dating back to 2009.
The students knew they had to be passionate and convincing to get their initiative across.
The Year 11 class, with the assistance of SRC Co-ordinate Miss Nicole Estavillo, wrote and delivered a fundraising proposal to our Senior Executive that was approved unanimously.
#SRHSshowyourcolours day was born.
Our students’ pledge that it was more than just wearing mufti or a sports jersey, our school’s focus was to raise as much money as we could for a very important cause.
The Fight Cancer Foundation ethos of helping young people maintain their education whilst receiving treatment for cancer was a huge motivator, as the students in PDHPE have been learning about the significance of continuing education and its impact on health.
Our goal was set very high; we wanted to raise $2000, a huge feat for a school with just over 500 students.
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In conjunction with the event, a #SHOWYOURCOLOURS Touch Football Tournament was organised through the PDHPE faculty as a whole school sporting challenge.
Teams entered from Year 7-12, with all giving a generous team entry donation.
The Touch Football tournament raised just over $150.00 itself, an impressive amount with 9 teams entered, when the minimum ask was only $5.00 per team.
The students sacrificed their lunch times and school afternoons, to compete in the tournament and finally resolve, who was the best team in the school.
Year 8 put up a gallant fight fielding a team with 2 NSW state touch football players, but were unlucky against a very strong Stage 5 (Year 9 & 10) team.
The final played on #SHOWYOURCOLOURS day in front of an eager lunch time crowd, came down to a much anticipated rivalry match against a young Stage 5 team taking on the Opens-Rugby League packed Stage 6 (Year 11 and 12) team.
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Stage 5 definitely turned up to win taking an early lead but the Stage 6 Opals held out under the leadership of Raka Poaru and break away player Cade Flores to win convincingly, 9 points to 6.
Friday, September 2 , known nationally as ‘Footy Colours Day’, was a clear success amongst both students and staff as demonstrated by the sea of colour we were met with on Friday morning at our whole school assembly.
Despite the poor weather, the excitement throughout the school was obvious, as students turned out in the team colours across various sports, including some Quidditch inspired outfits and continued to give generously throughout the day.
At final count, Sarah Redfern High School was able to raise an impressive $2200.00, all of which will be donated to the Fight Cancer Foundation.
