General News
1 August, 2022
Local schools welcome active grants funding
Local schools in the Central Goldfields Shire have received a boost, with the Maryborough Education Centre, Bealiba, Dunolly and Talbot primary schools among 96 schools receiving grants from the Victorian Labor Government’s Active Schools program...
Local schools in the Central Goldfields Shire have received a boost, with the Maryborough Education Centre, Bealiba, Dunolly and Talbot primary schools among 96 schools receiving grants from the Victorian Labor Government’s Active Schools program.
Each school received $4058 from the State Government, boosting their physical education and sports activities.
Labor member for Western Victoria, MP Jaala Pulford, said she was “thrilled” to help provide the schools with additional funding to keep students active.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate Active Schools funding recipients — I want to congratulate Bealiba, Dunolly and Talbot Primary Schools and the Maryborough Education Centre for their work to keep young Victorians active, fit and healthy,” she said.
For Dunolly Primary School principal Katie Lovel, the grant will be of great use to them to help their basketball program, which has seen players from the NBL1 team Bendigo Braves visit the school recently.
“It’s really beneficial to our students. They can be rurally isolated at times, so what we’re aiming to do with this funding is provide basketball clinics with the Bendigo Braves, which is an amazing opportunity to access high-level coaching, and perhaps give them the confidence to take up basketball in term four when the summer competition starts in Maryborough. It is giving them a great way in to a new sport they might not have tried before,” she said.
“It’s able to give us access to high-level coaches that we don’t have access to normally, so the funding has been vital to provide that point of difference that enhances what we do here with the teaching staff at Dunolly.”
Ms Lovel says that the new basketball court, coupled with the grant that the school has received, should be able to provide hopeful basketball players in the Dunolly area an opportunity to develop their skills on a good-quality court.
“With the new court in town, it provides the kids with the base-level skills to then be able to go down and play casually with friends, so it enhances that connectivity within the community, but also provides the kids with confidence to have a go at something new and hopefully, channel a few more into the competition at Maryborough, which can keep kids connected with clubs as a great protective factor as they head into their teenage years if they are involved with clubs in and around the district,” she said.