Earlier in the year our Year 7 and 9 Southwood students participated in the Health and Sports evaluation program. Held at Monash University’s High Performance Sports Centre, Southwood was the first school to participate in this program.

Now the program has gone on to win Best Sports Development Initiative by Industry Associate / Corporate Supporter vicsport member at the Victorian Sports Awards.

The Sport and Health Education Program (SHEP) was designed and tailored to the needs of our students. The Sports Science department at Monash University, who once worked solely with the elite end of sport, now offer a range of tests that assist students and parents to gauge their physical wellbeing.

The program targets a number of health issues that could have a massive impact on the performance of a student. Areas such as blood pressure, hearing and vision indicators have been targeted to ensure early detection of possible issues.

There will be room for future testing, and those students who record elite level results will be identified and directed into appropriate programs, such as the Commonwealth funded Talent Identification Program which aims to produce the next Olympic or World champions.

This initiative was an exciting and rare opportunity for our students to access state of the art facilities that are usually only accessible to elite level athletes.

Many schools have since followed Southwood’s lead and the program has grown rapidly and much of its success can be attributed to the relationship the school has forged with Monash Sport.