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Healthy Schools Yorkshire & The Humber 
HEALTHY SCHOOLS YORKSHIRE & THE HUMBER
‘Youth on Health’ is the region’s biggest success story, according to regional healthy-schools co-ordinator Ian Dixon. The Leeds-based schools project has been running for three years but is now starting to show results. Dixon says: “It’s a participation thing. Young people are getting involved in decision-making and are helping plan what services are provided in schools and where”. Initiatives like this have helped make Leeds a Beacon authority.
School councils from the Leeds area nominate young people for election to a city-wide panel. The project has been a boost to the take-up and direction of Healthy Schools in Leeds and provides a degree of personalisation that could serve as a model for other parts of the country.
Youth on Health has adopted a campaign called ‘Be Healthy’, which asks individual schools to pledge to make one big change to make a healthy difference. Dixon explains: “We have now got pupils and schools committing to ideas such as getting off the bus two stops early and walking the rest of the way to school or cycle-to-school promotions. These things are small, realisable and children are committing to them”.
The point about Youth on Health is not that it relies on large amounts of funding. It is that it empowers children to decide their own health agenda and influence services. As Dixon points out: “No young person wants to go to a GP surgery if they can get contraception advice at school”.
The region is meeting and even exceeding national targets. Dixon says that the region is on track to meet a Healthy Schools target of 55 per cent by December 2007. Next year the expectation is that 65 per cent of schools will have achieved the required standard, with 90 per cent participating.
The region covers South and West Yorkshire, North and North East Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, East Riding and Kingston upon Hull — 15 local authorities in all. Obviously in a region as diverse as Yorkshire and Humberside some areas will be ahead while in others progress might be patchy. Dixon says: “Leeds, Rotherham, York and Wakefield are our top performers. They have far exceeded our 2007 target of 55 per cent”.
According to Dixon, the main priority is to get the schools on side and working to the Healthy Schools Agenda. Dixon says: “Schools are burdened with academic targets, so we don’t want to add to that burden. It’s all about the definition of what schools are about. Some say it’s about the children’s well-being; others that it is solely about driving up exam results. There is a link between children’s health and their performance at school, but it’s a complex picture and there are a lot of factors at work. Some head teachers might argue that nothing should get in the way of exam results”.
The Healthy Schools Agenda is driven by getting Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) — which includes emotional development — onto the curriculum. The subject covers a wide range of healthy-school concerns from anti-bullying and drugs awareness through to diet and nutrition. PSHE is a non-statutory subject, and schools can drop it if they feel there is too much pressure from other areas. But Dixon says the region’s secondary schools are committing to PSHE, although not in a regular time-tabled slot but taught intensively on one day a month.
Professional development is key to overcoming a shortage of specialist PSHE teachers. Dixon says: “CPD — in-service teacher-training in PSHE —is a large part of our work. In each local authority we work with, we have to evaluate training. We don’t have any schools not teaching PSHE, so that’s a big step towards meeting targets”.
Local health priorities include, predictably, binge drinking and teenage pregnancy through to obesity. These are particular hotspots for social problems, and a priority for the coming year will be to iron out health inequalities through the region even within schools that have already achieved Healthy School Status. Dixon explains: “In Doncaster where I live, for example, there are wards where the life expectation varies by as much as 13 years from the most affluent to the poorest area. That is clearly unacceptable”. The region’s aim is to instil in schools a culture of continuous improvement and to this end more statistical information is needed.
Dixon is targeting time and resources on assisting priority areas such as Barnsley, Doncaster and Hull, all of which have challenging schools. “We are looking at differentiated or targeted support to help the region meet its targets. As a Beacon authority Leeds is working with other authorities to try to help them embed good practice.
“Local support for national projects around healthy schools, food and nutrition enjoy a degree of success. The Year of Food and Farming launched in late September 2007 will see information packs sent to schools and a series of school/farm visits. The regional healthy-schools team has a list of farmers willing to open their farms to schools, and the aim is to encourage a greater understanding of where Britain’s food is grown. Cookery is taken care of through local School Food Partnerships — an initiative sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
In a similar way, the region is a keen supporter of School Sports Partnerships. Dixon comments: “We try to work with them to promote not just sports but healthy activity such as cycling, walking to school and playground games”.
RAP : The Hill Primary School
Written and performed by Year 4 children
Get fit don't be lazy get fit
Don't be lazy get fit
This is a rap about being fit.
So get out there and put on your kit.
Because we are the kids that are doing it great.
So if you wanna get fit then you better not wait!
Here's the routine that we do now.
It will make your mouth just want to shout WOW.
Listen to us and kick up high.
Then jump to the left and jump to the sky.
Step to the right then step to the front.
Then step to the back and jump, Jump, JUMP.
Eat rubbish food and you'll get plump.
Rolling down the hill with a thump, Thump, THUMP!
Get fit don't be lazy get fit
Don't be lazy get fit
This is a rap about being fit.
So get out there and put on your kit.
Keep jumping to the beat and landing on your feet.
Keep jogging on the spot and do not stop.
Keep swimming in the pool and you'll not feel a fool.
Don't have many sweets and just a bit of meat.
Eat your veggies slow and it will make you grow.
When home from school, don't watch TV.
Come out and have a game of footie with me.
Get fit don't be lazy get fit
Don't be lazy get fit
This is a rap about being fit.
So get out there and put on your kit.
If you hike or bike you'll lose some weight.
So pounce on the scales and see if I'm right.
Quit smoking now or your heart will stop.
And to the floor you might just drop.
Drink lots of water, eat healthy grub.
Don't spend too much time at the pub.
If you do all this I'll be your witness
YOU'LL BE FULL OF HEALTH AND FITNESS.
Barnsley Healthy School 01226 281 961
National Healthy Schools Programme:
Regional Co-ordinator
Ian Dixon
Email Ian.Dixon@dh.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone 07733300210
Local Co-ordinators
Barnsley (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Sue Copeland
Email SusanCopeland@barnsley.gov.uk
Telephone 01226 720335
Bradford (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Sam Preston
Email sam.preston@educationbradford.com
Calderdale (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Trevor Harris
Email Trevor.Harris@calderdale.gov.uk
Telephone 01422 394168
City of York (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Jenny Philpott
Email jenny.philpott@york.gov.uk
Telephone 01904 553016
Doncaster (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Pat Nobbs
Email pat.nobbs@doncasterhealthyschools.co.uk
Telephone 01302 312197
East Riding of Yorkshire (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Karron Young
Email karron.young@eastriding.gov.uk
Telephone 01482 392416
Kingston Upon Hull (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Alison Cockerill
Email alison.cockerill@hullcc.gov.uk
Telephone 01482 616650
Kirklees (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Joanne Burke
Email joanne.burke@kirkleespct.nhs.uk
Telephone 01484 347676
Leeds (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Wendy Kershaw
Email wendy.kershaw@educationleeds.co.uk
Telephone 07891 270339
North East Lincolnshire (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Julie Boxall
Email Julie.Boxall@nelincs.gov.uk
Telephone 01472 323280
North Lincolnshire (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Lynne Devine
Email Lynne.Devine@northlincs.gov.uk
Telephone 01724 297948
North Yorkshire (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Clare Barrowman
Email clare.barrowman@northyorks.gov.uk
Telephone 01609 536808
Rotherham (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Kay Denton Tarn
Email kay.denton@rotherham.gov.uk
Telephone 01709 740226
Sheffield (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Amy Plant
Email Amy.Plant@sheffieldpct.nhs.uk
Telephone 0114 2264725
Wakefield (Yorkshire & The Humber)
Name Peter Ward
Email pward@wakefield.gov.uk
Telephone 01226 392425 |
