Health and Wellness Fridays to start at Mother Teresa School

By Samantha Johnson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on May 17, 2023.

reporter@medicinehatnews.com

Principal Aura Street of Mother Teresa School presented to the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education this week a new initiative called Health and Wellness Fridays that will see full implementation in the fall of 2023.

The initiative will be a first of its kind within MHCBE with the aim of putting the focus back on health and wellness. Those opportunities are often taken away from students so they can catch up on schoolwork, such as missing recess to complete unfinished homework. As Street told the board, when one is unwell both physically and mentally, they are never at peak performance.

The school has spent this academic year preparing the program, which will have lessons under the five pillars of physical, mental, spiritual, nutritional and digital health and wellness. One of the first challenges was figuring out how to reserve each Friday while still meeting the requirements of Alberta Education, but Street assured the board they have a plan that accomplishes this.

Starting in September, the school will reserve each Friday for the 125 health and wellness-based lessons. Both teachers and students will be exposed to all five pillars and each lesson. The students will have lessons in all five pillars each Friday and teachers will teach the same pillar, but different lesson, for five weeks and then switch to a different pillar.

To be successful, Street said the initiative needs to expand beyond the classroom. A couple of ideas being explored are a community night and family activities planner. Community nights would happen once a month with different activities – multi-culture fair, board games and scavenger hunts, for example – available to partake in.

Before the program rolls out, a survey will be sent out and there are plans to send out several more throughout the first year to gauge where improvements need to be made. An extra $15 will be added to school fees, used to replenish supplies and help fund the community nights. The school plans to run fundraisers as well, which will be separate from the regular parent council efforts.

The board granted $8,000 from the school surplus to create a wellness space within the school, which will have a variety of board games, exercise tools and equipment, a mini-greenhouse and air hockey table.

The school will be holding a presentation for all staff and the parent council in late May. In early June, there will be a community presentation for anyone interested in finding out more about the initiative. After positive feedback from the board, Street closed her presentation by saying they aren’t implementing a new model, just shifting the mindset.

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