Healthy Schools

Citation

(2010), "Healthy Schools", Health Education, Vol. 110 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.2010.142110faa.001

Healthy Schools

Article Type: Internet review From: Health Education, Volume 110, Issue 6

In the UK, the Healthy Schools campaign began in 1999 as a partnership between the Government, the health service and schools. The remit of this campaign reaches beyond the physical health of pupils in schools because it is also concerned with pupil achievement, social inclusion as well as reducing health inequalities. Healthy children will become healthy pupils who will in turn become health adults, and not only in terms of physical health but also from social and emotional perspectives.

The healthy schools programme is not UK specific and indeed in the USA a number of similar initiatives have also been launched. In this review we will look at a number of these programmes, and the web sites that support them, with a view to identifying examples of good practice.

Healthy Schools: http://home.healthyschools.gov.uk/

This web site is where information on the Healthy Schools programme in the UK can be found. For schools in the UK that are aspiring to achieve Healthy Schools status, this is a good place to start. The information in the web site clearly sets out the criteria for each of the four themes that constitute the Healthy Schools programme. These include education in terms of, Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education (PSHE), Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Emotional Health and Wellbeing. This is not a “health” web site but it does provide a number of useful resources for teachers and pupils who want to get involved in the Healthy Schools programme. The programme that is suggested involves seven stages in setting it up. For example: how to conduct a needs analysis; how to set up a development group; what is needed to develop interventions; and how to monitor success. All these documents, and more, are available to download and will be very helpful to newcomers to this programme. Mores specific information on health is available via the Resources tab though the PDF files and Powerpoint presentations are rather limited in what they offer. There are also News, Events and Hot Topic links as well as a shop where relevant merchandise can be purchased. It should be appreciated that this web site is very much about organisation rather than the delivery of the Healthy Schools initiative and therefore users shouldn’t expect too much in terms of the resources they might need to deliver such programmes.

Alliance for a Healthier Generation: www.healthiergeneration.org/schools.aspx?gclid=CNrq9cTF3qICFR4B4wodQFFSwg

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation works with the American Heart Association and the Bill Clinton Foundation to promote health in a variety of settings including, the community, the home and the schools. In this review we will focus on the school setting.

The web site has a number of resources dealing with health issues in schools although the links to healthy eating and exercise will probably of more interest than the more general policy links. The healthy eating section provides advice on how to pack a healthy lunch for a child something of interest to many parents. The perennial problem of the “school party” is dealt with and guidance on how to provide party food that is both healthy and fun can be found. One particularly interesting feature of this section is the “Product Navigator”, a free tool that allows users to browse a list of foods and beverages produced by companies that have signed up to the Healthy Schools campaign. All sorts of foods and drinks can be found in this section and they can be sorted in terms of suitability for different age groups in the school. By clicking on the different products presented, a shopping list is produced that can be printed and used later.

The section on improving physical activity in young children is interesting and starts by emphasising the difference between physical education and physical activity. For many children the very thought of PE with all its conations of cross country running and cold showers fills them with dread. But give them a ball or a game to play and many will happily run around for hours. The web site provides a link to www.peacefulplaygrounds.com, where teachers can find guides to all sorts of different, but fun, activities that children can get involved in during playground time.

The web site has lots of other interesting ideas that can benefit the health of children. I particularly liked the section dealing with after school clubs. Examples include cooking classes for even very young children. Older children can participate in yoga classes or give “spinning” a try (cycling very quickly on exercise bikes). There are also gardening clubs and community based activities, for example working in local parks or helping to run a health fair for local residents.

Although this web site is based in North America, and therefore the case studies cited are based in American schools, there are many ideas that can be adopted by schools from other parts of the world, including the UK.

Health in School, Kirklees: www.kirkleeshealthyschools.org.uk/

For someone who is new to the concept of healthy schools and colleges, this web site would be an excellent beginning, both for the underlying philosophy and policy, but also in terms of practical resources to help you get started. Naturally, the focus is on healthy schools and colleges in the Kirklees district, but don’t let this put you off, there is still a great deal of information that is more generic.

The web site starts by presenting an overview of the healthy schools project, the processes that are involved, the whole school concept and an introduction to outcome measures to help monitor progress. The four main sections dealing with health topics follow this and here users will find resources dealing with PSHE, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Emotional Health and Wellbeing. Each section provides policy information first followed by resources or links to resources for teachers or others involved in the health of children. For example under Physical Activity there is a link to an “Active School Pack” provided by the British Heart Foundation, bursting with ideas for the promotion of physical activity in children of all ages. Similarly, the Health Eating section provides teachers with Powerpoint presentations that can be used with their classes, newsletters, and even a template that can be used for teachers who want to develop a “whole school food policy”.

It is quite unusual to find such a good mix of health education resources and information dealing with policy initiatives, both being presented is a user friendly and easily accessible format. One slight criticism is that the design of the web site is now looking a little dated. It would benefit from greater use of multimedia, perhaps video clips of children talking about how the healthy schools programme has impacted on their lives. These “embellishments” are almost standard on modern, well designed web sites and perhaps it’s time for Kirklees to give some thought to a makeover.

Health-Promoting Schools in Scotland: www.ltscotland.org.uk/healthpromotingschools/index.asp

The Health Promoting schools web site is designed for teachers, policy makers and others who may be involved in health promotion in Scottish schools, though there is much to interest those who may be based elsewhere. The focus of this web site is very much on new health promotion initiatives and at the time this web site was accessed the main topics being dealt with were teenage pregnancies and the human papilloma virus (HPV) immunisation programme. Presumably these topics change at regular intervals though that wasn’t clear from the way this was presented.

Some of the best features of this web site are to be found in the “Key Questions” section. Here users can download, what in effect is a healthy schools manual. Called “Being Well-Doing Well”, this excellent resource provides a great deal of background information as well as guidance for the development and implementation of a healthy schools policy. Not everyone will want to read this, but for those who want to know how to formulate an effective policy in their school or college, this handbook is a very good place to start.

Many web sites have a “resources” section and this is no exception. However, rather than the usual list of tired old web sites, here we have a dynamic resources section in which users can specify their topic of interest and then focus on a particular part of the educational system, e.g. Primary Education, Further Education, Special Education and so on. The web site will then provide a user-centric list of web sites or links to resources in other forms, for example DVD’s, books, or leaflets. None of this is rocket science, but it does show what can be done with a little thought when designing a web site and it does make the filtering of information far easier for the user.

This web site has obviously been designed for use by health education professionals as well as teachers. So it was rather surprising to find under the links headed “Young People” and “Children”, interactive games for children aimed at teaching them about healthy schools. It’s not quite clear whether this feature is meant to be used by children themselves, in which case it seems a little out of place in this web site, or by the health education professionals, in which case the games are a little childish to be of any great benefit to adult users. Nevertheless, despite this minor criticism, users will find much that they can utilize in the development of their own healthy schools programmes.