At the launch this week were (L-R) Principal Parkes East Public School Michael Ostler, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack MP, Life Education Officer Alana Masi, Mayor Parkes Shire Cr Ken Keith OAM and Life Education NSW CEO Jonathon Peatfield.
Students at Parkes East Public School were the first in NSW to experience a new-look outdoor Healthy Harold classroom this week.
The new agile alternative to the famous van, is the Life Education inflatable outdoor classroom. It fits in the back of a purpose-built ute and inflates in a matter of minutes.
Life Education NSW CEO Jonathon Peat-field said the new outdoor pop-up classroom would help Life Education to reach more children, across vast distances, faster than ever before, and in a COVID-safe way.
Jonathon was in Parkes on Tuesday to attend the trial launch of the classroom with 350 students from Parkes East Pub- lic School. He was joined by Life Education NSW Board Director and Parkes Shire Mayor Cr Ken Keith and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.
Given his long-term support of Life Education, the Mayor was delighted to see this new innovation in action. “Life Education should be congratulated on their agile approach to advancing their outreach in our area,” he said.
Parkes East Public School Principal, Michael Ostler said: “We were disappointed when Harold couldn’t visit in the van earlier in the year (due to COVID -19) but jumped at the chance to be the first school in the state to utilise this outdoor option.”
Life Education, with well-known mascot Healthy Harold the giraffe, has been delivering health education for more than 40 years. For the past 10 years, more than 15,000 children from 16 schools in the Parkes region benefitted from the program.
In 2018, Life Education launched the first version of the pop-up classroom for indoor use. The latest outdoor version has greater ventilation for hot weather and assists with physical distancing during COVID-19.