Being a ‘healthy’ school can contribute to the health and wellbeing of the whole school community, make a contribution to overall school improvement, raise attainment, achievement and aspirations.
The DfE recognises that “in order to help their pupils succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally and physically healthy”. Moreover schools have a duty to promote the wellbeing of students.
Schools play a key role in supporting the health and well-being of children and young people. Recent education and health white papers recognise how schools can help children to become happier, healthier, and more ready to learn and achieve their full potential.
The Importance of Teaching – The Schools White Paper (DfE, 2010)
Healthy Lives, Healthy People: our strategy for public health in England (DoH, 2010)
The link between pupil health and wellbeing and attainment (PHE, 2014)
The Schools Health and Wellbeing programme provides guidance to schools on the physical and emotional wellbeing of children and young people, recognising that a ‘healthy school’ plays an important role in helping children and young people reach their full potential. The programme supports the links between health, behaviour and attainment. The programme is about creating healthy and happy children and young people who, as a result, do better in learning and in life. It uses a ‘Whole School Approach’ to promoting health and wellbeing.
The Schools Health and Wellbeing programme enables and supports schools to become “healthy schools” through the planning and implementation of health and well-being improvements for their children and young people.
A ‘healthy’ school promotes physical and emotional health and wellbeing by providing accessible and relevant information and equips pupils and staff with the understanding, skills and attitudes to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing. Pupils flourish in a positive environment and are given a voice to influence whole-school decisions. A ‘healthy’ school understands the importance of investing in health to help pupils do their best, raise levels of achievement, improve standards and develop policies and practices to promote health.
Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Schools adopt a whole-school approach, involving the whole-school community, parents/carers, governors, staff and pupils in improving children’s health. A Gateshead Health and Wellbeing school is one that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.
A Healthy School is one that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working. A Healthy School seeks to provide a healthy environment that engages all - children and young people, staff, parents and carers and the wider community through a Whole School Approach. The Whole School Approach is at the heart of our health and wellbeing work in Gateshead. The Whole School Approach:
...recognises the importance of health and wellbeing in the school setting and states that a Healthy School: “...strives to provide a healthy environment, school health education and school health services, along with school community projects, health promotion programmes for staff, healthier eating, opportunities for physical education and recreation and programmes for counselling, social support and mental health promotion”. The Public Health England 8 Principles of a Whole School Approach to EHWB provide a good structure in which to reflect on the Whole School Approach. We will be using the Whole School Approach / 8 Principles as the basis for our support for schools and the new Schools Health and Wellbeing Award. The process is needs-led and can support the school development plan in striving for continual improvement. A Schools Health and Wellbeing toolkit is available to support the process within Gateshead, using simplified planning and review tools. The whole school review is a useful template that enables schools to capture all aspects of their health and well-being activities. Separate planning tools support a plan, do, review approach to achieving changes in health behaviour that are meaningful to individual schools. This approach will ensure schools put in place the most appropriate services and meet the needs of their own children and young people. The Gateshead Schools Health and Wellbeing programme is committed to providing support, leadership, quality assurance and recognition through a strong working partnership between education and health.