Mum welcomes well being plan

BURNIE mother Fiona Hilder has welcomed funding for student health and well being, and says schools can play an important role in helping children develop important life skills.

Ms Hilder’s daughter Pirri Wiseman is in year 10 at Marist Regional College, and her youngest child is in year 6 at Burnie Primary School.

Her eldest two children attended government and Catholic schools.

Ms Hilder said focusing on children’s health and well being was particularly important on the North-West Coast, which has some of the poorest health outcomes in the state.

“Children need to learn life skills like [healthy eating] and exercise,” she said.

“There needs to be more wholistic life skills [taught].”

The health and well being initiatives funded in the State Budget include a focus on students’ mental health, which Ms Hilder said was equally important.

The State Government has also announced an extra $6 million over four years for capital improvements and independent and Catholic schools.

The Tasmanian Catholic Education Commission has welcomed the additional funding.

Ms Hilder said Catholic schools were a crucial part of the state’s education system and deserved government funding.

“A lot of low socio-economic students go to Catholic schools,” Ms Hilder said. “If they didn’t go to a Catholic school they would be going to a government school.”

Ms Hilder said the funding allocated to implementing the proposed lower school starting age would be better spent if it was given to child care centres to educate more children, “rather than putting more pressure on the education system”.

Children need to learn life skills like [healthy eating] and exercise Burnie mum FIONA HILDER