News

Kids bounce into better health future

By Daniel Harvey

Sep 14, 2026

Rochester Primary School students took part in a range of activities during the school's Health Expo, learning about physical and mental wellbeing. Photo by Daniel Harvey

The last thing you’d think primary school children need is further encouragement to be even more active.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Turns out, however, that’s exactly what Rochester Primary School is trying to achieve.

Because the school’s Health Expo last Thursday was all about helping develop healthier children who will become healthier adults.

And because being healthy is good for you, obviously hammering home the message had to be a little sneaky to avoid any exercise pushback.

With a lineup of booths manned by everyone from Coliban Water, Rochester and Elmore District Health Service, Echuca Regional Health, Echuca War Memorial Aquatic Centre, Trilogy Gymnastics and Boogie Bounce through to our key frontline responders – Ambulance Victoria, the police, and the SES – the day provided a running track as students ricocheted around the event.

“The kids raced from booth to booth and without even realising it, every time they stopped to look at something, or listen, they picked up another bit of valuable information,” teacher Sarah Mangan said.

She said the school’s Health Expo began after the 2022 floods, when the school wanted to “bring people together, have a really fun day, and share what we've still got in our community”.

Ms Mangan said when they started it, the day was a little more serious – with a health service talk focused on healthy eating, mental health, and encouraging students to check in on their friends.

She said the mental health component complemented the school’s ongoing wellbeing program through the Resilience Project.

“I think it's an important life skill to know how to eat healthy, be active and keep your mind healthy too,” Ms Mangan said.

“It lets the kids become familiar with the local support available to them,” she said.

Ms Mangan said the school also wanted the students to be aware of all the opportunities they have within the community to be active and keep healthy.

She said if the health lessons were learnt early, they would influence the rest of their lives.

“As well as letting them become familiar with the local support, it equips them with these life skills, so they'll know how to manage situations later in life, and knowing staying active can help them, and keep their bodies healthy.”