North Balga Primary School WA

Our student population is extremely diverse. We have approximately 54% EAL/D (English as a second language) students and our students speak over 57 different languages. Many of these students are refugees and have fled traumatic environments. 15% of our school is Indigenous and we support the majority of these families. Our school community is mostly from low socio economic backgrounds and many have experience trauma or abuse. We find a lot of our students do not have a lot of food at home so we support students with lunches where possible and we also have a breakfast club program. A large number of our students make their own breakfast, recess and lunches (as well as those of their siblings) due to home circumstances so giving these children the tools to understand healthy foods and how to prepare healthy dishes will be a skill that is vital. This could be knowledge they can pass onto their parents or guardians to help improve the health of their whole family. We find that a large amount of our students come with processed foods, as these are quick and cheap to buy, however are not conducive to learning. As the children in our communities make a lot of decisions around the shopping or food preparation, giving them the opportunity to participate in this program could be life changing. Our school community would not be able to pay for a program such as this, so having the opportunity for sponsorship is a wonderful opportunity for our school.