SCHOOL NAME:  Wollongbar Public School                             
REGION/LOCATION: Far North Coast, NSW 
AASC SITE CO-ORDINATOR: Steve Rollison

Teachers and students at Wollongbar Public School, in northern New South Wales, are ‘old hands’ when it comes to the Active After-school Communities Program.

In Term 1, 2005, the school was one of only two sites in New South Wales chosen to run a pilot AASC program before its national rollout in Term 2.

Staff, students, parents and the P&C have backed the program 100 per cent since its inception and are now looking forward to an ‘active after school’ in 2006.

“We’ve now got kids who have come back into the program for their fourth term in a row,” said assistant principal and AASC school co-ordinator, Steve Rollison.

“They love it and it certainly is getting them active.”

A typical session at Wollongbar Public School begins with their healthy afternoon tea – a smorgasbord of colourful cut-up fruit and vegies, dried fruit and chilled water.

Afternoon tea is funded by the Federal Government’s Healthy Eating Grant and costs approximately $11 per session for the 30 children. The school’s P&C organises the afternoon tea. Parents are rostered to buy, prepare and serve healthy snacks to the 30 children taking part in the sessions twice every week.

From there, its fun and games and more fun and games! Soccer, netball, rugby league and multi-skill sessions have been high on the lists of favourites.

“But it doesn’t really matter what activity the kids are doing. We’ve found that if the deliverer is good, then the session will be good and the kids will have a fun and active time,” said Steve.

The school is using all their funding to pay for deliverers and buy much-needed sporting equipment to run sessions and for general school use.

“We did find the administration of money a bit tricky in the beginning, but we now have streamlined that process.

“We chose not to pay for teacher supervision, but rather put money into buying equipment. Supervision duties also are shared between staff members.”

Overall, it’s thumbs up for Wollongbar PS and their AASC program!