AN Abbey Wood school teacher has just returned from a four week fact-finding trip to Australia.

Fiona Bass, who teaches at a primary school in Hounslow, won a travelling scholarship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to fund her investigation into health matters in Australian primary schools.

The trust enables people of all ages and backgrounds to travel abroad on projects and each year it offers different research categories.

She wanted to see how matters such as healthy eating, road safety, drug education and personal safety were tackled and what benefit there was to the children.

Fiona, who lives in The View, visited a number of primary schools and health and teaching professionals in New South Wales for her project.

She discovered that health education is a key learning area in both primary and secondary schools in Australia.

Initiatives include a healthy schools project and information to children about care in the sun.

She now hopes to share her information with those working on Britain's Healthy Schools Project, teacher training colleges and at her own school.

November 13, 2001 13:12