Healthy Schools Enhancement Model
What is the Healthy Schools enhancement model?
The Healthy Schools enhancement model is the start of a new journey for schools, but will build upon a lot of good practice already taking place in many Healthy Schools.
The enhancement model has been designed to help schools continue to deliver measurable improvements to the health and well-being of children and young people, by supporting schools in developing new ways of encouraging them to actively embrace healthier behaviours.
With an emphasis on continual development, the Healthy Schools enhancement model will enable schools to provide both universal and targeted health interventions within the school context, including offering greater support to children and young people who are most vulnerable.
The model sets out a series of manageable stages to help schools to assess their needs, and to plan, deliver and monitor new health intervention activities over a 2-3 year period.
Why has enhancement come about?
Over the past ten years, Healthy Schools has helped to bring about a significant culture change within schools and a greater recognition of the important links between health and attainment.
But long-term behavioural change around key public health issues such as obesity or teenage pregnancy is not something that can be achieved overnight – it's a constant challenge and one in which schools will continue to play an increasingly important role in the future.
The Healthy Schools enhancement model will provide primary care trusts, local authorities and their schools with additional support to better equip them in providing both universal and targeted health interventions to help address a range of these issues within the school context.
How is the enhancement model different from schools' involvement in Healthy Schoolsto date?
Schools achieve National Healthy School Status by evidencing that they have in place 41 criteria, across the programme's four themes: PSHE education, emotional health and well-being, healthy eating and physical activity.
The Healthy Schools enhancement model is about enabling schools to move beyond this firm foundation for improved health and well-being, and will support schools in developing further targeted activities to bring about healthier behaviours amongst children and young people, with a particular emphasis on addressing local needs and priorities.
What does this mean practically for schools?
Over the coming months, participating schools will work closely with their Local Programme Co-ordinator to identify local needs and agree tailored activities that will help to bring about healthier behaviour amongst their students.
Once schools have completed a needs analysis and identified the desired outcomes they want to achieve, they will work with their Local Programme Co-ordinator to carefully plan actions, identify early success indicators, and monitor progress.
Can any school be involved?
Any school can participate, but schools must have successfully achieved the criteria for National Healthy School Status (NHSS) before they can move onto the enhancement model.
Schools will also continue to have an annual review to ensure they are maintaining the 41 criteria for health and well-being laid through the process of becoming a HealthySchool, as this will continue to be the bedrock for further health promotion activities in schools.
What are the benefits for schools?
Some schools reported that having a set of 'national criteria' helps school co-ordinators and senior staff to drive through change where these were not already being met. As a result, schools felt that Healthy Schools could be a powerful lever for change. Schools see themselves as having a role in informing, educating and empowering students to make choices.
The Government's vision for the 21st Century School (as outlined in 'Your child, your school, our future: building a 21st school system” white paper) places an increased emphasis on the health and well-being of children and young people. It envisions schools providing a much broader role in the future by engaging more closely with parents, personalising children's learning, opening up school services to the wider community and increasing capacity through greater partnership.
The Healthy Schools enhancement model will help schools to make sense of this growing health and well-being agenda, and translate this vision into practice.
As well as reflecting this growing national agenda and continuing to support schools in achieving the Every Child Matters outcomes, the Healthy Schools enhancement model will help schools to better support local priorities and needs identified by the local authority and primary care trust in their local plans.
It will also enable schools to respond to new policy developments by providing schools with rigorous health and well-being evidence for school improvement plans, the Ofsted Self Evaluation Form and the proposed pupil level well-being indicators and school report card.
Does this mean more work for teachers?
It's now well established that healthier children and young people do better in learning and in life. Moreover, supporting positive behaviour change around health and well-being in school can encourage good habits for the future, as well as supporting greater achievement in the classroom.
Many Healthy Schools from across the country are already leading the way globally with their creative and resourceful health promotion initiatives, and are now very well placed to deliver health promotion within the school environment.
Teachers certainly aren't being asked to become health specialists. However, schools that are already working with Healthy Schools will already have strong education and health partnerships in place, and working with a range of external support agencies and public health experts, schools are being asked to provide some level of support in improving children and young people's health and well-being.