Editor's choice April 2007

St. Paul’s School gains National Healthy School status

Pupils and staff from St. Paul’s School became one of 52 Birmingham schools to join some of the first schools in the country to gain a new national award for being ‘Healthy Schools’ this month. All the schools – primaries, special and secondaries, gained new National Healthy School status and collected their certificates at an awards ceremony held at Birmingham’s Council House.

Julie Eaton Assistant Head from St. Paul’s School said of the achievement “I am thrilled that the school has received this award and our success is due to the commitment and dedication of the staff and pupils. St Paul’s has yet again shown it can meet the challenging standards that the Local Authority has set for all schools.”

Rigorous minimum criteria are set for schools to achieve the quality standard, requiring staff to work with their pupils and parents to find out what it is really like in the school across four areas: healthy eating, physical activity, emotional health and personal, social and health education. Each school then develops and improves in these areas so that they are then able to show how they have met the new national quality standards. Once the schools have made the changes, pupils are then given the opportunity to report on how their education environment has improved.

As part of the initiative Birmingham’s schools have had many original ideas. In some instances Schools have forged links with businesses in order to improve their understanding of health issues. These links have allowed pupils to gain a deeper understanding of catering and to develop a greater appreciation for the importance of emotional health and fitness. For some of the schools growing their own fruit and vegetables and using this produce to cook with has helped to encourage healthy eating.

Through taking part in the scheme pupils at St. Paul’s have been instrumental in developing the menus for both their breakfast club and lunch time meals. As well as enhancing their nutritional intake the pupils at St. Paul’s regularly take part in lunch time football sessions and the school now operates a bike loan scheme which enables pupils to ride to school in the mornings. A further aspect of the scheme at the St. Paul’s School has led to enhancements of the schools mentoring provision. It is believed that through a concentration on more contact with the pupils, trust between both the pupils and the school will develop.

Tony Howell, Director for Children, Young People and Services said of the Healthy Schools awards, “Were very serious about a brighter future, being healthy is really important and I’m really pleased we have embraced the Healthy Schools initiative”.