Using e-Bug to attain Healthy Schools status
Launched in 1999, the National Healthy Schools Programme aims to support schools in promoting health and wellbeing of children and young people. The scheme focuses on four core health themes which are (1) personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) which includes relationships and sex education, health education and drug education, (2) healthy eating, (3) physical activity and (4) social, emotional and mental health. A ‘Healthy School’ accreditation will be given to schools if there is enough evidence to demonstrate that they are actively taking steps in promoting the four health themes.
Although the funding for the programme was cut in 2011, many local authorities have continued to fund and implement the scheme themselves. The national scheme was relaunched in 2018 with a specific focus on healthy eating, physical activity and active travel.
It is important to note that awards and evidence required differ between the national and local schemes and can differ between local authorities as well, however, there are many common themes that are shared across them.
This article will outline how using e-Bug resources in your school can be used as evidence to attain status as a Healthy School.
Why work towards a Healthy School accreditation?
There are many benefits to obtaining a healthy schools accreditation, none more so than improving the health and wellbeing of the pupils and teaching them the appropriate behaviours to continue healthy practices throughout their lives. Schools that obtain Healthy Schools accreditation are given certificates to be displayed in school offices. This allows schools to share their success with parents and the local community to demonstrate that the school is committed to improving pupils’ health and wellbeing. The improvement of pupils’ health and wellbeing can have a positive effect on your school’s overall performance through better academic performance and attendance.
You may also notify Ofsted inspectors about your Healthy School rating, which could be used as evidence when reaching judgement on the Personal Development Education criteria. Staff in your school also benefit from the Healthy Schools Scheme, as working towards the rating can contribute to their career development.
How can e-Bug help you on your road to becoming a Healthy School?
By highlighting the similarities between requirements of the Healthy School accreditation, this article will guide you in how to integrate e-Bug in your efforts to achieve a Healthy School rating.
1. Action Planning
Schools are rewarded for conducting reviews of current initiatives for health and wellbeing, identifying areas to improve and developing the action plan to address the needs.
Whether targeting a specific health topic or covering the overall health and wellbeing of the school environment, the lessons taught within the e-Bug resources can help to form a realistic action plan to address these. This is because e-Bug resources are arranged by age group and topic with detailed lesson plans that are fun and interactive.
2. Active Involvement in RSHE
Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, or RSHE, became compulsory for primary and secondary schools in September 2020.
It is also part of the four core health themes (i.e., PSHE) in many Healthy Schools award schemes. A common criterion when evaluating for the Healthy School accreditation is identifying whether the core health theme is delivered within the curriculum and how it is delivered.
e-Bug covers many topics that are considered compulsory in the statutory guidance for RHSE and as such, can be used to help gain the Healthy Schools award. These topics include:
Primary schools
- Oral hygiene
- Personal hygiene and germs
- Handwashing
- Vaccination and immunisation
Secondary schools
- Oral hygiene
- Personal hygiene and germs
- Infection prevention and control
- Antibiotics
- Vaccination and immunisation
- Sexually transmitted infections
3. Make Improvements to your PSHE Curriculum
Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education encompasses many areas of study that are necessary for the development of personal skills and everyday knowledge that may help pupils to face challenges as they grow up. Schools and teachers have the freedom to tailor their teaching to a programme that suits them, but 1 hour per week of PSHE is recommended. Schools often use this time to incorporate RSHE topics into their teaching. The national curriculum states that by the end of secondary schools, pupils should know about the prevalence, transmission and best practices to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which is a topic included in the Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 e-Bug teaching resources. The e-Bug lesson plans are accredited by the Association for Science Education, therefore you can be confident that the content is scientifically sound.
Children and young people have reported preferring PSHE lessons that are interactive and engaging with less writing/copying. The best practice guidance highlights that lessons which are interactive, participative and engaging, with clear objectives are key for effective practice. All of these are well integrated in the development of e-Bug resources making it a good platform to support lessons.
e-Bug resources were recently updated to ensure that content is relevant, interactive and enjoyable, ensuring that pupils stay engaged and inspired during the lessons.
4. Support Healthy Eating
e-Bug developed a suite of resources as part of the European SafeConsume project, creating lesson plans and teaching resources that address important food safety principles for secondary aged students. These resources can be used to run a whole school programme which focuses on the importance of food hygiene. e-Bug’s food hygiene lesson plans can be used to teach pupils how to appropriately prepare and handle food and conduct practical experiments/activities to reinforce these behaviours in an engaging and enjoyable way.
For primary aged students, e-Bug oral hygiene modules highlight the dangers of sugar on oral health through fun activities and in class discussion on healthier food alternatives.
5. Improving leadership and supporting staff training
The evaluation for Healthy Schools award places an importance on staff’s wellbeing and competency. Specifically, it is commonly asked whether school leadership have had relevant training for health and whether the school provides appropriate training for staff.
e-Bug is not only a platform for free teaching resources, but the programme also provides training materials for educators to increase their competency in teaching children and young people on how to prevent the spread of infection, responsible use of antibiotics, food hygiene and safety through our courses on FutureLearn. The courses were created in collaboration with The British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and are approved by the Royal College of Pathologists. There is also the opportunity to increase teachers’ confidence and competency in delivering e-Bug content by becoming an accredited e-Bug trainer! We recently completed a pilot of our train-the-trainer program and are in the planning stage of rolling this out nationally. Visit the Deliver e-Bug Training page or subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest news on e-Bug!