Health Promotion in Kura/ Schools
Staff at Community and Public Health can assist schools who have identified nutrition and healthy eating as priorities to work on – by offering their skills, time and connections with health and community services.
Health Promoting Schools: Ngā Kura Tairanga Hauora
Health Promoting Schools (HPS) is an approach that supports school communities to create and sustain environments that improve and maintain their hauora (health and wellbeing).
The Ministry of Health’s Health Promoting Schools strategy ended in 2020.
However our Health Promoters are still able to assist with food and drink policy development and implementation through the nutrition component of the Healthy Active Learning initiative.
- Find out more about the Healthy Active Learning Initiative (Ministry of Health).
Feeding school wellbeing through values-led kai practices
Feeding school wellbeing through values-led kai practicesLove Kai is a new programme developed by Community and Public Health to implement the nationwide Healthy Active Learning initiative with Canterbury education settings.
Kai is about more than nutrition, so Love Kai takes a holistic approach based on the Te Whare Tapa Whā model of health.
Love Kai is driven by your school’s values, and provides guidance and support to enhance school food and drink environment, policies and practices.
Achieving Health Promoting Schools: Guidelines for Promoting Health in Schools captures international HPS principles and practices. This guide summarises success factors and actions for promoting health in schools, and six essential elements are highlighted:
- Healthy school policies;
- Physical environment;
- Social environment;
- Individual health skills and competencies;
- Community links; and
- Health services.
Research tells us schools should take a sustained strategic multi-faceted whole-school approach for better and more equitable health and education outcomes. This includes engaging students, staff, school leaders and whānau collaboratively in leading change.
Any school can use and adapt health promoting principles and practices to their context. There are many Aotearoa NZ specific frameworks, models and resources that have been developed to support this.
Schools can use appreciative inquiry to identify what priorities are important to their community; such as:
- Mental wellbeing;
- Nutrition;
- Physical activity;
- Whānau engagement;
- Sun safety;
- Cybersafety;
- Staff wellbeing; and
- Sustainability.
The inquiry-based approach seeks to focus on outcomes and solutions by building on what schools already do – integrating health and wellbeing objectives and actions into school planning and reporting processes.
- Get ideas on what schools across the region have achieved in the Health Promoting Schools Magazine – no longer produced.
New rights-based school uniform guidelines launched
NZ Human Rights Commission media release: 25th May 2022
The Human Rights Commission has released a set of uniform guidelines in an effort to help schools align their policies with human rights principles.
The non-binding guide is framed around a Te Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights lens and follows a series of consultations with students and teachers from 11 different kura around the country.
The Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon says schools in Aotearoa New Zealand have an obligation to uphold Te Tiriti in their policies and procedures while also giving effect to the rights of students.
“There is currently no legislation around school uniforms at the moment so we thought it necessary to have a guide to help schools give effect to students’ human rights in this space.”
“Students should feel comfortable and culturally safe so that they can focus on their learning, this is why we decided to produce these guidelines as no one’s right to education should be hindered.”
The Commissioner says if these steps are taken around uniforms, it can help improve students’ mental health and well-being as well as eliminating racism, bullying and other forms of discrimination.
“The Human Rights Act prohibit discrimination on a number of grounds like sex, religion, ethnicity, race or disability and schools need to make sure that their uniform policy doesn’t infringe on these grounds.”
He says a truly inclusive uniform policy can be a great way to distinguish students while instilling a sense of community and pride in both their individual and school identity.
New resources for schools on consent, gender diversity and inclusion
Beehive media release: 13th April 2022
Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti has today launched a number of new resources to support wellbeing, and the teaching and learning of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) in schools and kura.
“I want all our schools to be safe places for all our students whatever their gender, race, nationality, beliefs, or sexual orientation.
“Students who are happy and confident learn better. These new wellbeing resources will help our children and young people build quality relationships throughout their lives, with each other, and with others in their schools and communities. They are all designed to foster a sense of confidence and trust, and an appreciation of difference and diversity in our schools and our communities,” Jan Tinetti says.
“These resources include information about consent, digital safety, and healthy relationships. They are clear, easy to use, bicultural and inclusive. There are resources to provide teachers with practical skills and evidence-based information to talk about pornography. The suite also includes resources specifically designed for Māori-medium settings and for English-medium settings,” Jan Tinetti says.
- Find out more about the new relationships and sexuality resources for schools and kura (Ministry of Education’s Health and Physical Education Online).
Documents and Links
Health Promoting Schools
- Health and wellbeing resources and tools for schools (Te Kete Ipurangi).
- Health and Physical Education in the NZ Curriculum (Ministry of Education).
- School Evaluation Indicators (Education Review Office 2016).
- Aotearoa NZ Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2019).
- Achieving Health Promoting Schools: Guidelines for Promoting Health in Schools (IUHPE 2009).
- Health Promoting Schools New Zealand.
- New Zealand Curriculum Online.
- Ministry of Education.
- Health Promoting Schools (WHO).
Mental Wellbeing and Pastoral Care
- School uniform guidelines (NZ Human Rights Commission 2022).
- Our Kind of School (Office of the Children’s Commissioner and Ministry of Education 2021). Also available in Te Reo Māori.
- What makes a good life for disabled children and young people? (Oranga Tamariki and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner 2021).
- What makes a good life for tamariki and rangatahi Māori? (Oranga Tamariki and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner 2021). Report available in English and Te Reo.
- Learning in a COVID-19 World: The Impact of COVID-19 on Schools (Education Review Office NZ 2021).
- Now We Are Eight: Life in Middle Childhood (Growing Up in New Zealand 2020).
- What makes a good life? Children and young people’s views on wellbeing (Oranga Tamariki and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner 2019).
- Pastoral care and pastoral care teams: a review to inform policy and practice in schools (Community and Public Health 2018).
- The Good New Habits Book 2018 by Ian Vickers [1.6MB].
- Ian Vickers’ presentation from the 2018 Staff Wellbeing Workshop [10MB Slideshow – PPSX file].
- Te Pakiaka Tangata: Strengthening Student Wellbeing for Success (Ministry of Education 2017).
- Wellbeing for Success: A resource for schools (Education Review Office 2016).
- Wellbeing for Success: Effective Practice (Education Review Office 2016).
- Wellbeing in Schools (Ministry of Education).
- Wellbeing@School.
- Sparklers (All Right?).
Diseases and Immunisation
- Infectious diseases (Ministry of Health).
- Remember the two week Pool Rule – exclusion period for swimming pools after gastrointestinal illness.
- Year 7 and 8 school immunisations (Ministry of Health).
Becoming a Healthy School
- Allergy and Anaphylaxis Guidelines for schools and kura (Allergy New Zealand 2022).
- Healthy Food and Drink Guidance – Schools (Ministry of Health 2020).
- Water-only Schools Toolkit (Canterbury DHB and NZDA 2017). Hard copies available to order if you are in our coverage area.
- Healthy Events and Fundraisers (Community and Public Health 2017). Hard copies available to order if you are in our coverage area.
- Ngā Kaupapa Here: School Alcohol Policies (Community and Public Health 2019). Hard copies available to order if you are in our coverage area.
Contact your local CPH office for further information:
CANTERBURY
Ph: +64 3 364 1777
MID CANTERBURY
Ph: +64 3 307 6902
SOUTH CANTERBURY (WAVE)
Ph: +64 3 687 2600
WEST COAST
Ph: +64 3 768 1160
Additional Health Support for Schools
Public Health Nursing Service (Canterbury DHB).
Child and Youth Mental Health Services (Canterbury DHB).
Projects and initiatives supported by our team
Healthy Ōpāwaho is a collaborative project with the vision of empowering young people to lead community action to help create a healthy Ōpāwaho/ Heathcote river.
Edible Canterbury supports gardening and orchards in schools.
Ngā Kaupapa Here: School Alcohol Policies
A comprehensive school alcohol policy means everyone is clear about the use of alcohol on your premises or at school events, and how to respond to alcohol-related incidents.
This new guide offers all kura/ schools clear information for developing an alcohol policy. It includes reasons to develop a policy, the steps to take, consultation questions, topics to cover, legislation, and where to get support.
- Order your hard copy of Ngā Kaupapa Here: School Alcohol Policies – if you are in our coverage area.
- Download a copy of Ngā Kaupapa Here: School Alcohol Policies [2.15MB].
