Children spend, on average, a quarter of their waking lives in schools. In consequence, schools can have a positive influence over their knowledge, experience and behaviour, supporting them to eat well, be physically active and have a positive, lifelong attitude towards heath.
Below are some guidance documents and resources that school staff and parents may find useful:
Guidance documents for schools
- What works in schools and colleges to increase physical activity? A resource for head teachers and staff working in education settings
- Advice from Sustrans about safe and active school journeys
- Teaching food and nutrition education to pupils with additional needs
- Food in Schools whole school approach: Describes a whole school approach and the benefits of having a food policy
Resources for school staff
- Living Streets Walk to School Campaign has resources and activities to support healthy school journeys
- Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking and scooting challenge
- Shake Up toolkit – fun, bite-sized activities are Disney, Pixar and Marvel inspired resources to promote physical activity and engage parents beyond the gates
- BBC Super Movers are fun, curriculum linked resources to get your class moving while they learn
- The Youth Sport Trust Have a range of resources to help promote physical activity
- The New activity cards deliver inclusive, challenging, and fun PE sessions and support teachers to ensure their PE sessions are inclusive and accessible for all school pupils
- The Eatwell Guide is a visual resource that can be used to explain a balanced diet and how much you should eat overall from each food group
- Healthy Eating Week has creative ideas and resources to help primary schools to be involved in healthy eating week
- Healthy eating Change 4 life teaching resources contains leaflets, an assembly plan and other resources to support the NHS Food Scanner app
- Food a Fact of Life is a source of information to enhance the teaching of food education that includes free online training for primary teachers
- Food a fact of life also has resources to support teaching and learning about food and nutrition for children with additional needs
- Resources to engage with parents when teaching food and nutrition
- Veg Power has resources to support the eating of vegetables including downloadable posters
- Classroom cooking toolkit is full of ideas to help you teach cooking
- The RHS campaign for school gardening supports schools to provide children with gardening opportunities to enhance their skills and boost their development
- Food growing resources can be downloaded for pupils aged 5-11 around issues of food and sustainability and resources around growth for British science week
Resources for parents
- Youth Sport Trust have a ‘Family Hub’ to help children to lead healthy and happy lives
- Daily Mile has information about how parents can support the daily mile out of school hours
- Help for families to eat better and move more can be found at Change 4 life resources
- Information and home lessons from Food A Fact of Life for parents so they can support their children to eat well and be physically active
- Advice and resources from Let’s Get Cooking to cook with your child at home