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The Healthy Schools initiative is making a difference to the health and achievement of schoolchildren across the country.

Currently, nine out of 10 schools are trying to meet the National Healthy Schools Programme criteria to become a Healthy School. Seven out of 10 have already achieved Healthy School status.

What is a Healthy School?

A Healthy School considers the health and wellbeing of pupils in everything it does. Throughout the school day it teaches the importance of:

• emotional health and wellbeing,
• Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE),
• physical activity, and 
• healthy eating.

Healthy School activities include providing healthy, nutritious food throughout the school day, and providing equipment and activities to encourage pupils to be more active.

Through lessons, good leadership and management, and school policies, Healthy Schools try to improve the self-esteem of pupils, prevent bullying and provide education on sex and relationships, and drugs and alcohol.

Healthy Schools encourage healthy choices to improve the general wellbeing of pupils. They do this by involving staff, school pupils and parents. 

Is your child’s school a Healthy School?

You can find out whether your child's school is a Healthy School by asking at the school, or by visiting the school’s website. A Healthy School will display its Healthy School logo on its website. Healthy Schools receive an award plaque and a Healthy School certificate, which is normally displayed in the school reception.

Becoming a Healthy School

Many schools are already supporting children’s health and wellbeing as part of Every Child Matters (ECM).

The Healthy Schools approach helps schools to encourage physical health and raise emotional self-awareness. Healthy Schools teach pupils to be responsible citizens and to tolerate and respect one another.

Safe, happy and healthy

A Healthy School strives to be a safe, happy and healthy place to learn and work.

• It’s a school that understands that healthy, happy children achieve better results, gain confidence and become valuable members of the community.
• It’s a school that involves its pupils, staff, parents, carers and governors in making the school a vibrant and exciting place.
• It’s a school that has active links with local services, which it uses to benefit pupils and staff.

A National Programme

The National Healthy Schools Programme is run jointly by the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

It has a network of 150 local programmes, which are supported by partnerships between local authorities and primary care trusts. The programme has been running for 10 years. Each local Healthy Schools Programme works with all the schools in its local area to encourage and help them become a Healthy School.

Once a school has become a Healthy School, it can use the processes developed by the Healthy Schools Programme to grow and flourish.

Want to know more?

If you want to know more, talk to your school. They will be able to tell you about being a Healthy School, or what they're doing to gain Healthy School status. In a Healthy School the involvement of parents helps build a happy, healthy school. 

See Useful links for the following: 

• The Healthy Schools website has more information about the programme.
• Visit the DCSF website, which will have links to other related websites for parents and school governors.
• Find out more about ECM on the DCSF’s ECM website.
• Watch the Healthy Schools films on Teachers TV, which will show you how four schools around the country became Healthy Schools. Each Teachers TV film is 15 minutes long and can be viewed online or downloaded free for viewing whenever you want.