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Schools

Healthy Schools

What is a Healthy School?

A healthy school is one where everyone - school administrators, teachers, parents, students and community agencies, all work together to create a positive environment where students can realize their full potential. 

The benefits of a healthy school include:

  • A greater sense of belonging and connection to the school community.
  • Fewer school absences and improved academic success.
  • Increased mental well-being for students and staff.
  • Increased resilience, self-esteem and self-confidence.
  • Increased physical activity and decreased sedentary behaviour.
  • Increased vegetable and fruit consumption.
  • Decreased tobacco and substance use.

Healthy students are better prepared to learn and education is a key determinant of health and well-being.

Coming Soon! 

National Healthy Schools Week is October 7-12, 2024. We encourage school boards and schools to use this as an opportunity to begin thinking about your health and well-being priorities for the year ahead, identify goals and activities to include in your school action plan, and to engage your school community in the process. Our School Health Program is here to help! 

 

The School Health Program

Our goal is to promote optimal health, developmental potential and learning among school-aged children and youth in Simcoe County and the District of Muskoka. 

We partner with local school boards, schools and school communities to plan and implement health and well-being initiatives using a comprehensive school health approach to help make school communities a healthy place for all. 

We work in close partnership with local school boards and provide dedicated public health support to address health and well-being priorities. We are available to:

  • Attend routine meetings with designated school board representatives.
  • Act as a liaison to support streamlined communication and collaboration between the school board and our various health unit programs.
  • Provide tailored public health support to help plan comprehensive school health promotion strategies (e.g., through policy, projects or initiatives to promote healthy school environments, and collaboration on school board or community committees).
  • Provide credible information, resources, and consultation related to a variety of public health topics.

We help schools to plan and carry out activities to address current health and well-being goals. We are available to:

  • Meet to learn about your school’s health and wellbeing goals and priorities.
  • Provide tailored support for planning healthy school strategies and initiatives. 
  • Offer information, resources and consult on a variety of public health topics including mental health promotion, food/nutrition, physical activity, substance use prevention and more. 
  • Share ideas to help address priority health issues and promote health equity for all students and families. 
  • Support with Ophea Healthy Schools Certification and/or consult on your School Action Plan. 
  • Help to build partnerships with other health unit programs and/or community partners.

 

Some of the services we provide include:

  • In-person outreach visits with elementary and secondary school leaders.
  • Information and presentations to raise awareness about Healthy Schools.
  • Data, evidence, and public health recommendations to support developing and implementing school health policies, action plans, funding applications, projects or initiatives.
  • Professional development sessions and/or consultations with educators to support lesson plan development and delivery of health curriculum.
  • Participation as a member of Healthy Schools teams or well-being committees and/or support for schools enrolled in Healthy Schools Certification. Support for student and/or parent engagement initiatives to address health and well-being.
  • Information and resources for schools to share with parents/families, including messages for use in school newsletters.
  • Referrals to help connect schools with other SMDHU programs and services.
  • Information to help connect schools with other community partner organizations.

The Comprehensive School Health Approach

Comprehensive School Health (CSH) is an internationally recognized, evidence-based approach for building healthy school communities and creating long-lasting, sustainable change. Using a Comprehensive School Health approach helps to improve educational outcomes and enables schools to create healthy school environments that promote well-being and create long-lasting, sustainable change.

The Ontario Foundations for a Healthy School: a companion resource to the K-12 school effectiveness framework (English / French) can be used as a guide in planning your health and well-being initiatives. 

The framework encourages schools to address a range of health topics and apply a comprehensive approach through strategies in each of the following key areas:

  • Curriculum, teaching and learning
  • School and classroom leadership
  • Student engagement
  • Healthy physical and social environments
  • Home, school and community partnership.

When planning school health and well-being initiatives for your school board or school, consider what you are already doing in each of these areas. Acknowledging what is already in place is an ideal place to start.

Next consider what opportunities exist to strengthen your approach. Are there opportunities to build on existing initiatives for greater impact or sustainability? Are there any gaps or areas that need to be addressed?

We offer consultation and support to help you incorporate the five foundations for a healthy school into your unique action plan. 

Healthy Schools Certification (English / French) can help give your school the tools to promote and enhance the health and well-being of students, school staff, and the broader school community.

If you are new to Healthy Schools Certification, we can help you to register and work closely with your team as you move through each step of the certification process.

If you have participated in the process before, we offer ongoing consultation and support to help you build on existing activities and develop a revised action plan based on your school’s unique strengths and needs.

Student engagement is about empowering young people and creating a safe, caring and supportive environment where they can address and make decisions about issues that affect them personally and/or that they believe to be important. Actively engaging students can help to build a sense of belonging at school, school connectedness, strengthen healthy relationships, and empower students to participate in and lead academic and non-academic activities.

The Healthy Schools approach encourages student voice by actively engaging students in identifying and addressing health issues within their schools. Giving students a strong voice on your Healthy Schools Committee and other existing committees provides them with the opportunity to be both leaders and role models within their school community. It also recognizes the valuable role that students play in addressing the issues that affect them.

When parents and caregivers are involved in their children's education, everyone benefits. Having opportunities to connect with the school and communicate regularly with their child’s educator is important to foster positive relationships.

We support schools to actively engage parents and caregivers in identifying strengths and priorities (e.g. through Healthy School surveys) and encourage their involvement in Healthy School committees and/or health and well-being initiatives.

Community Partners with Schools (COMPASS) – Simcoe County:

COMPASS is an initiative of the Child Youth and Family Services Coalition of Simcoe County. Several local COMPASS teams exist throughout Simcoe County to help schools enhance student learning, support healthy child/youth development and reduce social, emotional or behavioural challenges within schools. COMPASS teams also help to link elementary and secondary schools with local providers of school programs and services, including:

  • Parenting supports
  • Child and youth mental health
  • Child protection
  • Health
  • Youth justice
  • Community recreation and more.

Participation in COMPASS supports schools and community partners to work together to best serve children, youth and families.  Please contact the Coalition if you would like more information or to be connected to your local COMPASS team.

Trillium Lakelands District School Board's Community Partners Breakfast Meetings – Muskoka:
The Trillium Lakelands District School Board invites community partners from across Muskoka to meet annually, to share information, and updates on programs and resources they offer to schools and the community.  Health unit representatives attend to share relevant updates with school board, school and community partners in attendance.

For more information, call Health Connection at 705-721-7520 or 1-877-721-7520 or email [email protected]. 
 
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