Healthy Schools, Healthy Children?
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Transcript Healthy Schools, Healthy Children?
Healthy Schools, Healthy Children?
“Linking good health, behaviour and
achievement through a whole school approach”.
Choctra Meeting 16th-19th Sept `10
Healthy Schools Programme
The Healthy Schools Programme (NHSP) is a joint initiative between DCSF
and Department of Health (DH) - which promotes a whole school / whole
child approach to health. The Programme has existed since 1999. It is
recognised as a key delivery mechanism in the Children’s Plan (DCSF 2007)
and in Healthy Weight, healthy Lives (DH 2008) – 21st Century White Paper
reference.
Healthy Schools is intended to deliver real benefits in respect of:
Improvement in health and reduced health inequalities;
Raised pupil achievement;
More social inclusion; and,
Closer working between health promotion providers and education establishments
We want all children and young people to be healthy and achieve at school and in life. We
believe that by providing opportunities at school for enhancing emotional and physical
aspects of health. In the longer term, this will lead to improved health, reduced health
inequalities, increased social inclusion and raise achievement for all.
Why Get involved?
Healthier children do better in learning and in life. By enabling children and
young people to make positive changes to their behaviour regarding health and
well-being, schools can help them reach their full potential in terms of
achievement and fulfilment. They can also encourage good habits which will
benefit children and young people both now and in the future.
The Government’s vision of the 21st century school has at its heart the need to
address elements of the lives of children and young people, with a particular
emphasis on health and well-being.
Both by achieving National Healthy School Status (NHSS) and through
participating in the Healthy Schools enhancement model, schools can develop
the wider thinking and planning they will need to do to achieve better
outcomes around health and well-being for children and young people.
The enhancement model will provide a particular focus on providing targeted
support for children and young people who are most at risk.
The whole school approach
Healthy Schools is not just about children and young people, it is about involving the whole school
community. And it is not just what happens in the curriculum but about the entire school day
The whole school approach is central to Healthy Schools. By adopting this approach, schools ensure
full engagement with the whole school community and can secure sustained improvements.
There are 10 elements to the whole school approach:
Leadership, management and managing change
Policy development
Curriculum planning and work with outside agencies
Teaching and learning
School culture and environment
Giving children and young people a voice
Provision of support services for children and young people
Staff’s continuing professional development (CPD) needs, health and welfare
Partnerships with parents/carers and local communities
Assessing recording and reporting children and young people’s achievement.
Healthy Schools and Every Child
Matters
Every Child Matters: Change for Children is a comprehensive approach to the well-being of
children and young people from birth to age 19. It places national outcomes for children and young
people firmly at the centre of all policies and approaches involving children’s services.
The five outcomes for children and young people are:
Be healthy
Stay safe
Enjoy and achieve through learning
Make a positive contribution to society
Achieve economic well-being.
Every Child Matters expects organisations which provide services to children and young people,
including schools, to work together in more integrated and effective ways. It also encourages
children and young people to have more say about issues that affect them as individuals and
collectively.
There are direct links between the criteria for NHSS, the Healthy Schools enhancement model and
the five Every Child Matters outcomes.
In addition, local authorities have to demonstrate their progress in helping schools achieve NHSS
through the comprehensive area assessment (CAA).
The Four Themes
The National Healthy Schools Programme has four
themes.
The four core themes relate to both the school
curriculum and the emotional and physical learning
environment in school. Each theme includes a number of
criteria that schools need to fulfil in order to achieve
National Healthy School Status. Although each theme
covers a different area, they are all delivered using the
whole school approach so the basic requirements are the
same.
Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE)
education, including SRE and drugs education
PSHE contributes significantly to all five national outcomes
for children and young people: being healthy, staying safe,
enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and
economic wellbeing
PSHE provides children and young people with the
knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes to make
informed decisions about their lives
Healthy Eating
Healthy eating contributes significantly to the being healthy
national outcome for children and young people
Children and young people have the confidence, skills,
knowledge and understanding to make healthy food choices
Healthy and nutritious food and drink is available across the
school day
Has an identified member of the Senior Leadership Team to
oversee all aspects of food in schools
The person’s role in relation to healthy eating is known by
staff and published in all school material.
Physical Activity
Physical activity contributes significantly to the being healthy
national outcome for children
Children/young people are provided with a range of opportunities
to be physically active
They understand how physical activity can help them to be more
healthy, and how physical activity can improve and be a part of
their every day life
There is a named person in the school who leads policy and
practice in the development of Physical Activity and is known to
all staff in that role. This will often be the PE Co-ordinator or
Head of PE, BUT it must be clear that the person concerned
understands that Physical Activity is wider than PE.
Emotional Health and Well-being,
including bullying
Emotional health and wellbeing contributes significantly to all five
national outcomes for children and young people: being healthy, staying
safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and
economic wellbeing
The promotion of positive emotional health and wellbeing helps
children and young people to understand and express their feelings,
build their confidence and emotional resilience, and therefore their
capacity to learn
Identifies vulnerable individuals and groups and establishes appropriate
strategies to support them and their families
The school must be able to show how it has considered vulnerable
groups with regard to ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality and disability –
in regard to both health and education issues. The school should be able
to identify how it is using the pastoral support system, care plans,
specialist input and the index for inclusion.