A new toolkit has been launched to help schools across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly boost the health and wellbeing of pupils and their families.
The Healthy Schools Toolkit has been developed by Healthy Cornwall and a range of partner organisations and can be accessed here: Healthy Schools Toolkit - Healthy Cornwall
It is designed to support all education settings, including our special schools and home education community.
The toolkit focuses on six key areas, giving useful ideas, tools, links, activities and lesson plans to support each one. These core themes are:
- Food, nutrition & dental health. This includes ideas for growing and cooking activities at school and promoting good oral hygiene.
- Physical activity. This includes promoting ‘active travel’ (walking and cycling) and creating active environments at school.
- Emotional health & wellbeing. This includes helping pupils to develop and maintain positive relationships and creating a whole school, trauma-informed approach to wellbeing.
- Health protection. This includes promoting local and national public health campaigns and providing good infection control measures, such as handwashing facilities.
- Environment, community & responsibility. This includes encouraging pupils to understand and embrace environmental sustainability and creating new biodiverse habitats.
- Workforce wellbeing. This includes developing a staff wellbeing policy and organising staff wellbeing initiatives for the school workforce.
Schools and education settings are encouraged to sign up for regular updates from our team of experts.
By signing up, they will stay informed about new resources, tools, training sessions, relevant campaigns, and more to support the overall goal of becoming a 'Healthy School.'
The toolkit was officially launched on Saturday (October 19) during an event at Heamoor Primary School in Penzance.
Staff hosted a ‘Big Dig Day’ which was supported by Healthy Cornwall and other local community partners.
The school has been a valued supporter of the toolkit’s development, and the event was a great chance to showcase some of the ideas and recommendations it contains.
Cllr Barbara Ellenbroek, cabinet member for children and families at Cornwall Council, said:
“I’m blown away by the amount of hard work, passion and creativity that has gone into producing this Healthy Schools Toolkit.
“It is jam-packed with great tips and ideas about how to make sure health and wellbeing is prioritised in all our education settings which can then have a ripple effect on families and the wider community.
“It is one of our priorities that Cornwall should be a brilliant place to be a child and grow up, and I’m sure this toolkit for schools will play an important role in achieving this goal.”
Rachel Wigglesworth, director of public health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said:
“I’m incredibly proud of the work that has gone into creating this toolkit so we can help schools to create a healthy, happy place for our children, young people and teaching staff.
“Having a learning environment that prioritises pupils’ health and wellbeing is vital if we want to help them to feel good about themselves and achieve their potential.”
For more information on the toolkit visit the Healthy Cornwall website.
Press release issued on October 23, 2024.