Breath of fresh air at Trinity

By Rebecca Fraser
TRINITY Catholic Primary School has officially become an asthma friendly school.
The move comes after the Narre Warren school fulfilled certain criteria to complete the asthma friendly program.
These included initiating asthma management policies, action plans and staff education as well as ensuring emergency access to asthma first aid kits within the school.
On Monday, Paul Preyer, store manager of Ritchies SUPA IGA Narre Warren, and Gary Irving, Chief Executive Officer of the Asthma Foundation, presented the school with their certificate for the next three years.
The Asthma Friendly Schools Program was established through the Asthma Foundation of Victoria in 2001.
Since then 50 per cent of schools in Victoria have completed the program with 80 per cent of schools registering to take part.
As part of the program all school staff were educated to ensure they knew how to act in a situation where a student was experiencing an asthma attack.
The Asthma Foundation of Victoria and all education sectors are now encouraging all schools to complete the program.
Mr Irving said any school that took the initiative to register for their program must be congratulated.
“As a safeguard against a possible tragedy, there is no reason why every school in the State should not be registered, especially when the program is simple and is very easy to implement,” she said.
IGA’s Community Chest program sponsors the Asthma Friendly Schools project and this ensures that schools in Victoria incur no charge to become or stay Asthma Friendly.
Recent statistics reveal that 15 per cent of children have asthma and it is steadily on the rise.
Principal of Trinity Catholic Primary School Mary Howlett said she was an asthma sufferer and understood the importance of being prepared and having a clear action plan.
“Asthma affects so many children and having the right treatment and plans in place can be lifesaving and also save a lot of stress and make the school community far more aware,” she said.