“A health-promoting school is a school that is constantly strengthening its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.” World Health Organisation (1996) Promoting Health Through Schools – The World Health Organisation’s Global School Health Initiative World Health Organisation: Geneva.

Schools make a substantial contribution to a student’s health and well being. It is much more than health classes in the curriculum. The way the school is organised and conducted has an impact. So too, do the various out of class activities that schools undertake. There are many factors that contribute to how a school can enhance the wellbeing of its students.

A considerable body of evidence has emerged in the last twenty years that indicates that school programmes that are integrated, holistic and strategic appear to produce better health and education outcomes than those which are mainly information based and implemented only in the classroom.

The Health Promoting School (HPS) is an internationally accepted approach to addressing school health. The HPS approach is strategic and involves all those key components which impact on a student’s health and well being. If HPS are planned and implemented wisely and thoroughly, then students will gain considerable benefits whilst at school, and more importantly in their future adult lives.

Health Promoting Schools at EACH

The Health Promotion Team at EACH has been involved in planning with a number of schools in 2009, to assist them in become Health Promoting Schools and has partnership agreements with the following schools:

• Maroondah Secondary College
• Tinternvale Primary School
• Bayswater Nth Primary School.

Based on ‘Phases of the Health Promoting Schools Process, Health Promoting Schools Toolbox: A Toolbox for Creating Healthy Places to Learn, Work and Play’ (Brisbane Nth Public Health Unit), the plan for working with these schools involves:

• Prepare- meetings with school leaders
• Create a Shared Vision- presentations to school councils, staff, parents, students etc. Signing of a Partnership Agreement
• Select a Priority Issue- school audit, discussion with teachers and parents in regards to health issues to be addressed.
• Develop an Action Plan- Form a Health Promoting Schools committee that will develop goals, outcomes activities, timelines, resource requirements, roles and responsibilities, monitoring and evaluation
• Plan into Action- implement the plan across the school
• Evaluation- continual evaluation in the form of process, impact and outcome evaluation and dissemination of results.

The story so far

Bayswater Nth Primary School

A school audit has been conducted of the entire school community- parents, teachers and students.  The audit identified what the school community valued about the school and also identified a number of areas that the school community would like to see changed.   In August 2009, EACH Social and Community Health sponsored a Health Promoting Schools Day at The Country Place in Olinda for the staff of Bayswater Nth Primary School.   The day was spent socializing with each other and brainstorming ideas for a fabulous healthy school.  Three main areas were identified for attention. These are:

• Physical Activity
• Staff Health
• Healthy Eating

Health Promotion staff are now working with the teachers at Bayswater Nth to devise a health promotion plan for 2010 which addresses the issues raised at the Health Promoting Schools Day.

Maroondah Secondary School

EACH Social and Community Health are currently working on a project entitled ‘Imagining the Healthy Environment at Maroondah Secondary College. The project is working on canteen redevelopment including the area around the canteen, vegetable gardens, and composting.  Maroondah Secondary, EACH Social and Community Health and Bunning’s Croydon have a three way partnership agreement to work together to benefit the school community.  We have been fortunate in receiving a Schools First Seed Funding Award of $25,000 to assist in financing the project.

Tinternvale Primary School

In 2008, EACH and Tinternvale Primary partnered to run a Walk to School Day. Activities included a healthy breakfast, the award of the Golden Shoe to the class with the greatest amount of walkers, pedometers as awards and a presentation by the local MP.  On the day there was a 104% increase in the amount of children walking to school.  Tinternvale was listed on the VicHealth website as one of the top 10 performing schools in the state with 200 to 349 students enrolled.  A second Walk To School Day is planned for 2009.  EACH is also working with Tinternvale on a program to promote the three new values adopted by the school this year. This involves poster competitions, a school drama, information for parents and integration of ideas into the curriculum.