NCC Governors e-CourierPromoting Health and Well Being
| 
Sue Astbury, the Transforming School Food in Norfolk Coordinator – Healthy Norfolk Schools, presented on “Promoting Health and Well Being – 10 easy steps to monitoring and evaluating what happens in your School “ at the NGN June Conference 2010.
Sue explained that she is part of the Health Education partnership team which looks at all aspects of Health and Well-being in partnership with others. Information can be found on the Healthy Schools Norfolk part of the Norfolk Schools website which also has a Newsletter section.
It is important for schools to promote health and well-being – where is your school now?
An integrated whole school approach will involve parents and staff with developing policies. Communities and other agencies can also be involved. OFSTED will be looking for evidence to show what your school is doing. In Norfolk all but 4 schools are part of the Healthy Schools Programme with 78% having National Healthy School Status and the rest are working towards this.
The scheme has 4 themes
- PSHE
- Healthy Eating
- Physical Activity
- Emotional Health and Well-being
Schools must undertake Healthy Schools Audit and Annual Review. The Annual Review Tool is available online at www.healthyschools.gov.uk by logging on to your school’s pages. This is good evidence for the school to collect for OFSTED.
Other sources of evidence include statutory policies and responsibilities including safeguarding, evidence of compliance with mandatory school foods standards for all food in schools and SRE (Sex and Relationship Education) policy. External food providers, including Breakfast Clubs, must provide evidence that they meet the standards. Copies of menus should be kept as evidence.
Contact Sue (
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
) if you want to discuss this further. Sources for other useful data about what is happening can be found on the presentation slides.
How effective is your school? Copies of School Council minutes and school surveys (of pupils and parents/carers) can show OFSTED what if felt about what the school is doing. Norfolk’s magazine for healthy and sustainable schools Footprint magazine has interesting articles on what schools can do. A governor commented that their school had done a pupil survey which had come up with useful ideas which had been taken forward. A comment was made that care must be taken in wording questions. Does your school do an annual review to compare year on year if there is a change in attitude and behaviour? Healthy Norfolk Schools Newsletter Spring 2010 includes information about Healthy Schools’ Enhancement Model – over 40 schools have started phase 1 of this. Schools are developing their own priorities against wanted outcomes.
Building aspirations in early years is vital to set pupils up for the future. Safeguarding issues are important in schools. If a child is not able to participate in normal school activities this is a trigger to consider whether this is a safeguarding issue. Governors will not be directly involved in this area but need to know that the school is pro active in safeguarding.
The meeting split into groups to look at what governors expect to find in a “healthy school”. Governors shared what their schools were doing to promote health and well-being. It was inspiring to find that so much is done including gardening clubs, anti-bullying initiatives, healthy eating, help with mental health, walking and cycling to schools and partnerships with wider community organisations. Healthy and Well-being is about more than just food.
To conclude Sue gave 4 steps to monitor and evaluate what is happening in your school:
Step 1 – talk to children and young people
Step 2 – talk to PSHE co-ordinator – do you have a planned progressive programme?
Step 3 – look at school’s Healthy School Audit
Step 4 – make use of information you already have
Angie Johnson thanked Sue for giving up her Saturday morning to talk to governors. She was enthusiastic and informative and the interactive session was useful to see what other schools are doing and giving ideas that could be taken up.
 Sue Astbury Presentation | 318 Kb |