Health Promoting Schools
Researching Health Promoting Schools, program implementation, effectiveness, and long term success can yield varying results. This is in part due to the lack of awareness and training of teachers about what Health Promoting Schools are, and the supports available.
The World Health Organization defines Health Promoting Schools as;
"A health promoting school is one that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.
A health promoting school:
Fosters health and learning with all the measures at its disposal.
Engages health and education officials, teachers, teachers' unions, students, parents, health providers and community leaders in efforts to make the school a healthy place.
Strives to provide a healthy environment, school health education, and school health services along with school/community projects and outreach, health promotion programmes for staff, nutrition and food safety programmes, opportunities for physical education and recreation, and programmes for counselling, social support and mental health promotion.
Implements policies and practices that respect an individual's well being and dignity, provide multiple opportunities for success, and acknowledge good efforts and intentions as well as personal achievements.
Strives to improve the health of school personnel, families and community members as well as pupils; and works with community leaders to help them understand how the community contributes to, or undermines, health and education.
Health promoting schools focus on:
Caring for oneself and othersMaking healthy decisions and taking control over life's circumstances
Creating conditions that are conducive to health (through policies, services, physical / social conditions)
Building capacities for peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, equity, social justice, sustainable development.
Preventing leading causes of death, disease and disability: helminths, tobacco use, HIV/AIDS/STDs, sedentary lifestyle, drugs and alcohol, violence and injuries, unhealthy nutrition.
Influencing health-related behaviours: knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes, values, support."
As a veteran teacher with 20 years of experience, I can honestly say that I had never come across Health Promoting Schools until registering for a course titled "Health Promoting Schools". So, for me this was so
After reviewing many documents, questioning many colleagues and parents, I reflected on the information I had gathered and tried to make sense of what has or maybe hasn't happened.
As a teacher, I am most often asked by parents, "how is he/she doing?". The question isn't related to academic performance, it is always related to their child's well being. Do they have a friend in the class? Do they get along with others? Are they respectful? etc.
As a parent of young children, my greatest concern is if they had a good day at preschool. The learning is secondary for me and for my wife as well. We want our kids to be happy and healthy.
When a child is born, we all collectively hope for a "happy and healthy" baby.
So, what goes wrong? That is, when do we lose that early perspective on happiness and health?
Sadly, we as a species seem to be wired wrong. So often in society we know what is right, best, good, or healthy for us and yet we choose what is wrong, worst, bad, and unhealthy based on time, money, and results.
Bad food tastes good, is fast, little effort is required for preparation, it is cheap, and easily available. The result of the action is immediate and at the time highly rewarding.
In contrast, the results of implementing Health Promoting Schools are not immediate and not easily measurable. Unfortunately this seems to devalue its legitimacy and importance. The Healthy Buddies program in Manitoba elementary schools seems to highlight this scenario for me.
The program is well laid out and organized, students in grades 4, 5, and 6 recieve training and education on healthy lifestyles and eating through a prepackaged course facilitated by their classroom teachers. Once complete, they are paired up with students in grades 1, 2, and 3. The intent is that the older students will model positive health behaviour and lay the foundation for long term success with the younger students.
In theory this is ideal. The conclusions however, are far from overwhelming and, overwhelming is what we need to have long term sustainability of HPS programs.
While the program did yield positive results, I couldn't help but key in on a few of the recommendations. Less time, finding more "capable" buddies, more parental involvement, all show that rewards did not equally reflect the effort made by the teachers and participants. They all want greater results with less effort. Interestingly, it was noted that there was no change or improvement in the older buddies, which leads me to believe that the buddies themselves are losing interest in the program.
Again, this takes me back to my early questioning. When, why, and how do we lose our perspective on the importance of happiness and health (long term)?
I believe that simple answer is found in the way we structure our school day and the overall school system. As students proceed through the system they spend less and less time simply having fun and being active. This in turn leads to shifting the long term priorities of our society. It turns us into mini efficiency robots that maximize time, minimize energy requirements, and maximize results. Unfortunately, the results we work so hard to achieve are unhealthy for us.
In order for HPS to be successful long term, the requirement is simple yet rather difficult to obtain. We need a complete systemic shift to what is truly important. We need leaders to place greater value on health and wellness, less on profits and short term efficiencies. How can you measure the success of long term health when you only measure success over a short period of time?
Are Canadian Kids Too Tired to Move? (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from https://www.participaction.com/en-ca/thought-leadership/report-card/2016
Balance Wellness Program. (2016, June 27). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.mbteach.org/mtscms/2016/05/22/balance-wellness-program/
Government of Manitoba, Education, School Programs Division. (n.d.). Manitoba Education. Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/physhlth/index.html
Healthy Buddies Pilot Project. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthyschools/documents.html
Joint Consortium for School Health - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.jcsh-cces.ca/
Manitoba Healthy Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthyschools/index.html
PHE Canada Resources. (2010, July 04). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.phecanada.ca/resources/phe-canada-resources
What is a health promoting school? (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2017, from http://www.who.int/school_youth_health/gshi/hps/en/