______________________ Healthy Schools Status
What is a Healthy School?
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A school that promotes physical, social, emotional and mental health and helps equip pupils, staff and families with the skills and attitudes to make informed decisions about their health.
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A school that is successful in supporting pupils to do their best and build on their achievements; it is committed to ongoing improvement and development.
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A school that recognises the importance of investing in health and well-being to assist in the process of raising children and young people’s achievement levels.
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A school which involves the whole school community, parents, governors, staff and pupils in improving children’s health, well-being and happiness, helping them to get the most out of life.
How does the Healthy Schools Awards work?
Healthy Schools Awards is an opportunity for our school to actively promote the health and well-being of the whole-school community. It is a commitment to promoting personal, social and health development and support the links between health, behaviour and achievement. It is centred around the whole school environment and all aspects of school life.
Awards are for schools to recognise their achievements in supporting the health and well-being of their pupils. There are three levels of award:
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Bronze: is awarded to schools that complete Healthy Schools Review Tool and achieve the requirements.
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Silver: in addition to holding a Bronze Award, the school will need to undertake an analysis of pupils’ needs, and identify new actions that will help pupils achieve and maintain good health and well-being. This should include one targeted and one school-wide action, and the school will need to make plans for how the changes will be delivered and measured.
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Gold: in addition to holding the Silver Award, the school will need to show the impact of the changes they have made and that these are sustainable. The school will need to show how it has engaged the wider community, and supported others to help children maintain a healthy weight, healthy lifestyle and well-being.
If you would like to find out more information, visit their website at: https://www.healthyschools.org.uk/
Riverside Bridge School is currently working towards gaining the Gold Award for Healthy Schools. This will demonstrate that the health and well-being of the children and young people in our care are well catered for by focusing on the following four areas:
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PSHE including ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ and ‘Drug, Smoking and Alcohol Education’
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Healthy Eating
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Physical Activity
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Emotional Health and Well-being
To achieve this, we have to prove how we meet the following criteria:
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the school provides clear leadership to create and manage a positive environment, which enhances emotional and physical health and well-being in school.
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the school curriculum includes PSHE education, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Emotional Well-Being – areas of learning which are monitored and evaluated to ensure the quality of teaching and learning
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the school has the mentioned above policies which are reflected in practice and through ethos, culture and the environment. They are reviewed by consultation every three years.
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the school ethos, culture and environment promote emotional and physical health and well-being.
Whilst completing our health check from the Bronze Award, we identified some important next steps to improve our provision for our pupils.
Some of these are:
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effective implementation and evaluation of our new PSHE curriculum;
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continue to improve Pupil Voice across all areas of the school;
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work in partnership with key stakeholders to develop a wide range of active travel to school initiatives;
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and develop parental engagement around PSHE provision.