This year marks the first time Cobram Secondary College has taken part in the initiative, with students and staff joining thousands of Australians in completing daily push-ups during June.
The challenge sees participants complete 3307 push-ups, representing the number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2024.
College director of wellbeing and engagement Lachlan Marchant said the school had seen strong involvement from both students and staff.
“Once you get a bit of momentum and people are visibly doing push-ups around the school, others want to join in,” he said.
“The idea is that you sign up to either do the full challenge, which is all 3307 push-ups in 30 days, or the half challenge ― it’s less about the actual physical activity and more about raising awareness.”
Each day, participants receive a set number of push-ups through an app, with each target linked to different mental health statistics.
“On average it’s about 140 push-ups a day if you’re doing the full amount ... the biggest day in the challenge is 229 push-ups,” Mr Marchant said.
The school marked the start of the initiative with a launch day in early June, bringing together staff and students involved in the challenge.
“We had all our staff and participating students in the hall, along with others who just came to watch,” Mr Marchant said.
“I did a talk on why we’re doing the challenge and we heard from some students about why the issue is important to them and why they wanted to be involved.”
He said the challenge had since created a sense of connection across the school community, with participation extending beyond those officially signed up.
Mr Marchant said people were doing push-ups together around the school, and even in meetings, staff would pause to complete their daily tally.
He said the initiative had helped start important conversations about mental health.
“I think the push-up challenge is a really good example of how doing something really simple and easy to implement like this can lead to some really awesome conversations with students and staff that you wouldn’t normally have,” Mr Marchant said.
“We've also had a number of staff, me included, that feel physically fitter after doing the challenge.
“It’s a really cool thing for the school community to be a part of because it builds connection and a sense of belonging, not just with those participating, but across the whole school.”
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