HEALTHY Harold, the nation’s favourite educational giraffe, is visiting St Mary’s Primary School this week to teach the students about healthy choices and drug education in a fun and interactive way.
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Running Healthy Harold is Eve Thompson, who says the main reason she was attracted to this job was because of the wonderful memories she had with Harold when she was in primary school.
“Kids love it. Its such an exciting time for them in the mobile learning centre, it’s also a bit magical with the stars on the roof and the giraffe in the van.”
The main focus of Healthy Harold is to empower young children to make the best choices for a safe life, through drug and health education programs.
Infants (years K to 3) are taught about healthy food choices and keeping sun safe, while the older years are educated about smoking and alcohol, using role plays and interactive games.
“We have a new program for the year 4s this year called Mind Your Medicine, and it’s an interactive game show featuring Ernie Dingo as the host,” Eve said. “Kids and teachers are loving it and are responding really well to its message.”
Healthy Harold has been running since 1985, and the much-loved giraffe hasn’t lost his touch to connect with children.
“We love Healthy Harold,” said students from St Mary’s Year 1 class. “Harold’s my favourite, because he nibbled on my ear!”
There are over 50 Healthy Harold vans running in New South Wales, allowing all schools in the state to experience the educational magic of Harold the giraffe.
“I think Healthy Harold is definitely a very important part of primary school education,” said Eve, “especially in order to get a healthy message across in a fun and interactive learning experience for the kids.”
