The impact of Healthy Schools Plus
Tuesday 21st May 2013
Healthy Schools Plus which has been running in Wiltshire for the last 3 years was recently evaluated by NatCen on behalf of the Department of Health.
NatCen said
"We found that the programme had an impact: the proportion of pupils demonstrating healthy behaviour was two and half times higher following the intervention based recorded data. From speaking to pupils, teachers and school staff, it emerged that the programme created a healthier ‘ethos’ in the school and improved knowledge of healthy food among pupils, and interestingly among teachers too. Another important finding is that schools’ promotion of emotional health and well-being may contribute to a reduction in teenage pregnancies and harm from alcohol and drug use in the future as pupils are better informed about how to avoid peer pressure.
Crucial to schools’ ability to encourage healthier lifestyles were local programme teams based in local councils or health authorities. School staff told us that having the support of these teams really helped raise the profile of the issue, identify school specific problems and introduce high quality activities."
More from NatCen on Healthy Schools Plus here:
http://natcenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/how-can-schools-encourage-children-to.html
Look for more about the Wiltshire programme on this site during the next couple of months.
