We will include the full text of the latest project below.  As you tells us about new projects, we will create a series of case studies that will be listed below and can be downloaded for you to read at your leisure!

ARE YOU THINKING OF GOING FOR HEALTHY SCHOOLS STATUS?

The following is a summary of the process followed by Cath Kitchen and the team at Hospital and Outreach Education, Northants.

CHANGE TO THE AUDIT

As of September 2008, all the audits for healthy schools will be done ‘online’ then only our self validation form will be in hard copy as this needs to be signed by (wait for it…) Head, Governor, Parent, Young Person rep and Staff rep!

The national audit which describes the themes, criteria and minimum evidence can be accessed now at the website:

www.healthyschools.gov.uk

We were given a password by our healthy schools co-ordinator but if you have yet to make contact with them then I think you can register yourself. You enter your evidence and tick which part you have completed. Any outstanding actions are then listed at the end and become your action plan for that theme – saves us doing yet another! Just a note that it is always better to make contact with the co-ordinator as they will be part of the panel that looks at your self validation form and decides if you meet the criteria – nicer if they already know you! Approx 10% of submissions are asked to produce evidence – they choose one area and you choose one area you would like to show them.

USEFUL PEOPLE TO MAKE CONTACT WITH
The quality assurance group who look at your self validation are made up of people who are involved with healthy schools such as a co-ordinator, travel plan co-ordinator, PSHE co-ordinator, a representative from school food and drink team and a school sport co-ordinator. Through your healthy schools co-ordinator, make contact with these people – they then know that you are addressing the outcomes in your audit and will be less likely to ask for evidence! The travel plan person is particularly useful – this is a complete nightmare for setting such as ourselves but as long as we have consulted and are planning to do one, we meet the criteria for accreditation!

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE OUTCOMES
The self validation from asks for both quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (words, observations) outcomes. The qualitative is easy for us – quantitative a bit more challenging! What I did was use a pupil survey, based on the outcomes they want evidence for, and scored that. Although there were relatively low numbers and we only reviewed those who were attending a base, it gave us some good hard evidence, not only for the healthy school form but also for our SEF – who else can say that from pupil surveys, 100% of them felt safe within their setting! I have put the pupil survey I designed onto the site for you to use/adapt etc. It is very simple with lots of yes/no bits. I also did one after we had done some work on drug education to show evidence of pupil progress. Again, that one is on the website for you to see.

Policies and paperwork you will need
You will most probably have most of these already though maybe the ‘sun safety’ policy wasn’t at the top of your list! I have put ours up on the website (see below and on the "Policies" page) if you haven’t got them so you can use and adapt – I think most of ours came originally from Google anyway!

PSHE

* Sex & relationships policy
* Drug education policy
* Managing Drug Related Incidents Policy (may be referred to in other policies or part of Drug Education Policy)
* Safeguarding Policy in line with Local Children Safeguarding Boards
* Confidentiality Policy or referred to in other appropriate policies
* Non-Smoking Policy or an equivalent policy outlining the school’s commitment to being smoke-free with timeline included
* School’s CPD file
* Teaching and Learning Policy
* Programme of Study/Schemes of Work for PSHE

Healthy Eating

* CPD file
* Whole-school Food Policy
* Schemes of Work for Healthy Eating (these may be in PSHE, science or design and technology – we don’t have separate scheme of work)

Physical activity

* List of activities – these may not be traditional PE type activities – we call ours the ‘active curriculum’. It might include some the the enterprise activities you do for example
* CPD file
* Physical Activity Policy
* Inclusion Policy
* Scheme of Work for PE – again, may not have this. If you don’t, a rationale of why you don’t and how activities are matched to individual and group needs and may very from year to year and cohort to cohort.
* School Visitor Policy

Emotional health and well being

o Behaviour Policy
o Teaching and Learning Policy
o Schemes of Work/Programmes of Study for emotional health and well-being and the development of social and emotional skills (will prob be part of PSHE. For KS 1 & 2 use SEAL materials)
o Safeguarding Policy
o Inclusion Policy
o Examples of good practice in combating stigma and discrimination
o Examples of practice in tailoring support around more vulnerable children/young people
o Prospectus/parent information packs
o School Vision/Mission Statement and Aims (if not in Prospectus)
o Anti-Bullying Policy
o CPD file
o Confidentiality Policy (discrete or part of another policy)

Useful web links

On the national site, there are links listed. There may also be some useful ones unique to your area and these will be uploaded as we hear about them.
Some others are listed here:

www.qca.org.uk/pshe
www.dfes.gov.uk/sreguidance/sexeducation.pdf
www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/drugs
www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/familyand community/child protection/schools
www.foodinschools.org
www.foodinschools.org/policies_reports/whole_school.phpe
www.schoolfoodtrust.org
www.food.gov.uk
www.teachernet.gov.uk/doc/5062/LTPES.pdf
www.teachernet.gov.uk/sdtravel
www.bhfactive.org.uk/resources/index.htm
www.teachernet.gov.uk/seal

Links to useful documents

Aims and Ethos Statement
Anxiety Leaflets:Anxiety – tackling it together