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 is planning to co-design a new integrated school health service model to replace the Health Promoting Schools service. This work has been delayed due to COVID-19.

Health promoters at Community and Public Health are continuing to deliver the nutrition component of the Healthy Active Learning initiative in the meantime.

• Find out more about the Healthy Active Learning Initiative (Ministry of Health).

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.

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

• 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 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 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

• 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.

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.