Education: South West to go further on health
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Schools in the South West will take part later this year in a "Healthy Schools Plus" pilot to recognise schools that go beyond the basic criteria for Healthy School status.
Speaking last week at a Westminster Education Forum seminar on Healthy Schools, Sam Mellor, head of the Healthy Schools delivery unit at the Department of Health, said it was important schools pushed themselves beyond the minimum standards. "There are 10,500 schools with Healthy Schools status and we don't want them to stand still," he said.
To achieve Healthy School status, schools have to meet criteria such as providing free drinking water and encouraging children to walk to school. Healthy Schools Plus will ask schools to look at what more they can do to improve pupils' health.
Mellor said since the launch of the Healthy Schools scheme eight years ago, almost half of all schools in England (48 per cent) have achieved the status and nine out of 10 are participating in the scheme.
