St Canice’s NS, earn Health Promoting Schools Flag 20th June 2017
On 20th June 2017, St. Canice’s N.S was presented with the Healthy Ireland ‘Health Promoting Schools’ Flag’. This was a fantastic achievement for our school and was spearheaded by a dedicated team which was made of up Teachers, SNAs and pupils.
The Healthy Ireland Health Promoting Schools (HPS) Flag is presented by the HSE to schools as an acknowledgement of their work in improving the health of their school communities.
The HPS supports schools to focus on health and wellbeing and involves all members of the school community. Pupils, staff, parents and guardians are consulted to identify priority health areas. Over a period of around two school years, the school developed an action plan to address the health areas identified.
European research has shown many benefits of the HPS – whole school approach to health. Chief among these benefits are increased self-esteem, safer and cleaner school environments, lowered incidences of bullying, a positive approach to health issues, increased parent involvement and better student/teacher relationships, to name a few.
In St. Canice’s N.S. some of the many health initiatives chosen to take on board in order to progress as a Health Promoting School included: Introducing a Healthy Food Policy, Promoting Physical Activity, Student and Staff Wellbeing, Connectedness and Improving the Physical Environment.
Health Promoting Schools (HPS) is not a once-off project, but a whole-school approach to all aspects of health and well-being. Following its 11 steps allows your school community to plan and record the health and wellbeing projects already running in your school, and aims to identify and fill any gaps, providing a coherent framework and evidence base for the work.
With the HPS concept, health refers to physical, social, emotional, mental, spiritual, and cognitive health and is seen as an essential resource for living life. The school recognises that these dimensions of health are interconnected and that they influence, and are influenced by the school environment. The model addresses the social determinants of health and health inequalities.
There are four parts to the HPS model: Environment (both physical and social); Curriculum and Learning; Policy and Planning; Partnerships (Family and Community Links). Each part of the HPS model supports the other and the whole school is stronger and more robust as a result of this comprehensive approach.
