The Healthier South West initiative encourages children to choose water and refrain from sugar sweetened drinks which can lead to tooth decay, weight gain and can affect their ability to concentrate and learn.

To help make the choice easier, Wannon Water and South West Primary Care Partnership gave each student a ‘choose tap’ water bottles on Thursday.

Teacher Ellie Merrett said they would eventually move to become a water-only school. “There’s a lot of things we need to put in place before that can happen but that will be the end goal. We encourage drink bottles in the classrooms and it’s water only. All of this ties in with our involvement in the healthy together Achievement Program”.

Student Nate Trigg, 9, said it was important to drink water to keep energy levels up and to stay hydrated.

South West Healthcare health promotion officer Jacinta Lenehan said they partnered with WEPS in 2016 to implement the healthy changes as part of the Achievement Program, a state-wide framework to improve health and wellbeing. 

The school has also incorporated healthy eating and oral health into its curriculum, celebrating healthy food choices and water as a choice of drink and made changes to the canteen menu.

Ms Lenehan said Warrnambool West Primary School and WEPS had taken up the water-only challenge and called for more schools to get involved.