About Healthy Schools
Developed by NHS Lanarkshire’s Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Management Service in conjunction with North Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council as well as input from practitioners and learners alike, it is a prime example of health and education services working in partnership to support the future generations of Lanarkshire.
This interactive website, which has been in circulation since 2014 to support education staff and nursery, primary and secondary pupils, was written by teachers from North and South Lanarkshire in conjunction with local NHS and Health & Social Care staff.
The Healthy Schools framework supports practitioners across establishments in North and South Lanarkshireto co-design and co-create relevant, appropriate Health & Wellbeing curricula with their children and young people. The Healthy Schools framework provides a ‘one stop shop’ for practitioners that includes suggested Health & Wellbeing Experiences and Outcomes, Learning Intentions and Success Criteria, How Good Is Our School? 4 Indicators etc. Working with this framework, along side their children, young people and other partners will support the delivery of Health & Wellbeing for children and young people across Lanarkshire. This is further supported by additional CLPL, training and support sessions to enhance provision in educational establishments.
Jonathan Cavana, service manager – healthy lifestyle and weight management service, NHS Lanarkshire, commented: “The website is available to support children and their families to look after and improve their health and wellbeing by providing a health education framework which can be used by early years’ practitioners and teachers throughout the full academic year, every year from nursery to S6.
“The idea behind it isn’t about getting teachers to do anything extra, but it is becoming the vehicle of choice for health and wellbeing information. This structured framework contains all the learning & teaching resources and materials needed to support the delivery of health & wellbeing in a way that’s flexible and helps education staff to plan and deliver individualised health and wellbeing education which compliments existing teaching resources.
“Healthy Schools is part of a suite of interventions our team has developed in Lanarkshire with tailored health and wellbeing support for adults, families, children and young people, which we continue to roll out, with support from our local partners, in Lanarkshire.”
Dr Elinor Steel, Healthy Schools manager, NHS Lanarkshire, added: “We know that it’s listening to the learners to find out what they have experienced or what they can tell us that gives the quality of anything in education. We are trying to impact on the adults of today to help the children of now.
“We’re thrilled to launch the newly added Senior Phase on the website. This section covers leaving home, using the NHS, volunteering and relationships and lets young people explore these topics in a safe environment that is led by them.”
Dr Kevin Lowden, senior researcher – Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, University of Glasgow, said: “The evaluation has shown that Healthy Schools is highly valued in schools because it is relevant to needs and aligns with the curriculum and related policies.