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.
In terms of physical activity, children and young people aged 5 to 18 should:
- aim for an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week
- take part in a variety of types and intensities of physical activity across the week to develop movement skills, muscles and bones
- reduce the time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity which is spread activity throughout the day
Below are some guidance documents and resources that school staff and parents may find useful:
Healthy eating
Healthy Eating guidance documents and planning tools
- Healthy Steps – guidance for schools: provides guidance for schools to support delivering a whole school approach to healthy eating and supporting families
- Food in Schools whole school approach: describes a whole school approach and the benefits of having a food policy
- Creating a culture and ethos of healthy eating: supports pupils to gain knowledge of how to keep themselves healthy and making informed choices about healthy eating and fitness
- Free school meals: guidance for schools and local authorities: provides resources to engage with parents when teaching food and nutrition
- Food teaching in primary schools: a framework of knowledge and skills
- Teaching food and nutrition education to pupils with additional needs
- Example healthy lunchbox policy
Healthy Eating resources to use with children
- The Eatwell Guide: a visual resource that can be used to explain a balanced diet and how much you should eat overall from each food group
- NHS Food Scanner app: an app to help pupils explore what is in their food and drink and swap unhealthy foods that are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, to healthier choices. The app is free to download
- Healthy eating Change 4 life teaching resources: contains leaflets, an assembly plan and other resources to support the NHS Food Scanner app
- Healthy Eating Week: has creative ideas and resources to help primary schools to be involved in healthy eating week
- Food a Fact of Life: a source of information to enhance the teaching of food education that includes free online training for primary teachers
- Food a fact of life: has resources to support teaching and learning about food and nutrition for children with additional needs
- Veg Power: has resources to support the eating of vegetables including downloadable posters
- Classroom cooking toolkit: 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 to support their children to eat well
- 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
- HENRY offers help planning and cooking healthy family meals with simple recipes
- Food a Fact of Life: has resources to engage with parents when teaching food and nutrition