Celebrating 10 years of Healthy Schools

Date published: 22 June 2010

It’s the tenth birthday party for the annual Healthy Schools celebration today, Wednesday 23 June, at Dukinfield Town Hall.

Pupils and staff from Tameside schools involved in the Tameside Healthy School Scheme (THSS) , along with representatives from agencies that support them, will be showcasing their hard work and achievements. The scheme is part of the National Healthy Schools Programme, an initiative that promotes the link between health, behaviour and achievement.

81 Tameside schools have achieved National Healthy School Status and the celebration will showcase activities going on in a variety of areas such as: drug education, anti-bullying, physical activities, healthy eating initiatives and working with support agencies.

The THSS supports schools to achieve National Healthy School Status (NHSS), which involves working on four key themes: 

• physical, social and health education 
• healthy eating 
• physical activity 
• emotional health and well-being

Cllr Ged Cooney, Executive Member for Lifelong Learning said: “ We encourage our schools to take a whole school approach to improving the physical and emotional well-being of their pupils.

“Being healthy and having a healthy outlook will have a major beneficial impact on their learning now and the way they behave later in life. If we motivate our pupils to think about health it can help them achieve their full potential in both learning and life.”

The Mayor will be presenting plaques and certificates to schools and healthy snacks and drinks will be available during the morning. Agencies and organisations will be displaying their resources and highlighting the work they do to support schools.

Thirteen schools are now involved in a pilot project to extend their good practice through the Healthy Schools Enhancement Model. This aims to help schools to be better able to promote both universal health improvement for all pupils and provide additional support targeted on those identified as most at risk.

The model highlights the impact that healthy schools has achieved through working in partnership with other agencies to deliver positive health and educational outcomes for children and young people.