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About Life Education Heartland Otago Southland

A picture containing text, mapDescription automatically generated Life Education are a nationwide educational charitable organisation, with 33 different regional trusts operating across the country. We are The Heartland Otago Southland Trust who operate through the "heartland" of Otago and Southland - Makarora to Milton, Glenorchy to Gore, Mosgiel and the Maniototo.

Using our mobile classroom, Harold the Giraffe, and our highly experienced Educator we visit schools across our region delivering The Healthy Harold programme. We support children to:

Develop life skills relating to their health and wellbeing
Understand how to make healthy choices
Gain knowledge about health and their bodies
Develop self esteem and a positive understanding of themselves
Develop strategies for relating to others

As a snapshot of the work that our Educator (Pip), and Harold, do in our region - last year the Classroom visited 43 schools in our Trust’s area In round figures, our Educator delivered lessons to approximately 7,049 children in that period.

The Vision of Life Education is to enable children to reach their full potential. We aim to reach every primary school child in our area with the purpose of educating and inspiring generations to embrace positive choices for a healthy mind and body - BUT we need your help to do this!!

It costs over $150,000 per year for the Heartland Trust to provide its valuable services. With NO Government funding, it is vital that the community served by Life Education helps us to deliver the program. To continue to deliver our exceptional experiences, we need your support to remain relevant, while also extending our reach to impact even more children.

Our Trustees are from throughout the region, and are very committed to looking after Harold, Pip and the mobile classroom, so that they can bring the important Life Education messages to all of our schools. If you are interested in joining the Trust in a governance role, and have the skills we require (event management and asset management) please email: heartland@lifeedtrust.org.nz

What we teach

We utilise a shared planning approach with schools to create individualised lessons to suit the needs of tamariki. Our teaching strands have been developed based on the four key challenges that tamariki face to their health and wellbeing while growing up. Our teaching could cover content across five key strands: identity and resilience, relationships and communities, food and nutrition, human biology, and substances.

Young people in New Zealand face many significant health issues. Life Education provide tamariki and rangatahi with knowledge and strategies to help them make positive choices for their health and wellbeing. Click here to see some of the challenges our tamariki are facing today and how Life Education are supporting them through these issues.

Our impact and outcomes

As health education specialists, our goal is consistent with the NZ Curriculum; to equip children with the knowledge and skills so they can make informed decisions. Over time, informed decisions will lead to positive changes in society.

For over 33 years our Healthy Harold Programme has been supporting children to navigate the challenges of our complex and changing society.

An NZCER review of the Healthy Harold programme found Life Education performed well on key indicators that reveal value in the classroom, in particular the educators’ strong expertise in health, engaging style and programme content.

View the Healthy Harold Impact and Outcomes

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Check out Pip and Harold in one of our very own 'At Home' sessions.
Time to check out all the amazing parts that work together to turn our food into energy... Our Digestive System!
See more of Pip and Harold

Testimonials

"A very unique learning environment that engages students through novelty of resources, an energetic presenter/teacher, drawing on the children's rapture and memories of Harold as a character who they adore"

— Clinton School

"Consistently enjoyable for the students in a different learning/class environment."

— Rosebank Primary School

"For our school, the Life Education bus provides resources to explain more complex Health education than we can do in the classroom eg. TAM Pip, our Educator is very engaging with the children and all of the technology supports and aids learning. Even though our senior children are older they absolutely LOVE Harold and can't wait for the bus to arrive. We are very lucky to have such a fabulous resource available to us."

— Silverstream South School

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Life Education Trust Heartland Otago Southland