Healthy Living
At our school, we help our children stay mentally healthy as they grow and learn. In this context, what happens at school every day is essential. We can help children lead a healthy lifestyle directly – to make healthy food choices at lunchtime; to be active at and on the way to school; to help children learn about their health and develop their motivation and self-respect to make healthy choices.
The benefits go beyond health - we know that children achieve more when they are healthy and happy at school.
Below you will find further information about how we make healthy choices at Our Lady Immaculate and the project we undertook to achieve the Healthy Schools London - Gold Award!
Gold Award Achievement
The Healthy Schools Award recognises schools in England for promoting student health and well-being, with awards at Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels.
The Gold project aimed to enhance children's emotional resilience and self-regulation. Key initiatives included explicit resilience teaching, staff training in attachment and trauma awareness, and parent workshops on emotional coaching and anxiety reduction. These efforts led to significant improvements in pupils' ability to employ their own regulation strategies with the consistency of support between school and home. Overall, the project had a profound impact, equipping children to better regulate their emotions and boosting teachers' confidence in supporting students' mental health and engagement in learning.
Daily 15
The Daily 15 is a fully inclusive and simple initiative which aims to improve the physical and mental health of children. Children in all classes complete a variety of physical exercises led by class teachers for 15 minutes every day. This initiative, which is additional to PE lessons, improves children's fitness, fosters an approach to leading a healthy lifestyle and is beneficial in maintaining focus in the classroom setting.
Healthy Eating
Eating habits are developed during childhood. If encouraged to enjoy healthier food and drink early on, it is more likely that these positive behaviours will remain with children and young people throughout life.
Healthy Lunchboxes
Whether squeezing it in before the school run in the morning or before bed on busy midweek evenings, preparing your child's lunchbox can seem like another thing on the list.
School meals are a great choice, but if you do make a packed lunch for your child then this NHS website page has got you covered with their range of quick, easy, healthier lunchbox ideas and tips.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
The social and emotional development of children and young people is usually nurtured and developed at school and at
home. Effective schools and learning communities are characterised by learners who are healthy, well-nourished, resilient, ready to learn and supported by their family and community.
Well-being encompasses many things:
- Emotional well-being - happiness and confidence
- Psychological well-being - autonomy, problem-solving, resilience, attentiveness and involvement
- Social well-being - good relationships with others
Visit our other Wellbeing sections of the website to see how we embrace this as a community.
