Internet review

Citation

(2007), "Internet review", Health Education, Vol. 107 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.2007.142107fag.001

Internet review

Children are geting fatter, the school canteen, if there is one, is serving nothing but junk food, the school playing fields were sold off a long time ago, and health and safety have banned most of what would have been sports day. If only a small portion of this media hype was true, then our children are spending a significant proportion of their childhood in institutions that seem to be promoting ill health. How much of this is true, and what are our schools doing to promote healthy behaviours in young people? In this review we look at the web sites that are aimed at promoting and supporting the “healthy schools” ethos in the UK.

Healthy schoolswww.healthyschools.gov.uk/

This government sponsored web site describes the healthy schools initiative as one in which schools are helped to support the health and well-being of all those who are involved with schools, i.e. pupils, parents and staff. The UK government has set a target of all schools participating in the scheme by 2009, and by then 75 per cent of these should have achieved National Healthy School Status.

This national web site is quite well designed and attractive to look at, though some of the text is litle on the small size. It should be emphasised that this web site does not provide any materials or learning resources that a teacher might want to use if involved with a healthy schools project. What it does provide is guidance on the measures required to achieve healthy school status. All the relevent targets and associated documentation can be found here. For the user who wants more practical information there are a number of useful links provided that will give access to the resources that may be wanted.

The main part of this web site is under the heading of themes. The healthy schools programme is based on a whole-school approach which focuses on four main themes, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Emotional Health and Well-Being. For each of these themes the web site describes what is required of a school that wishes to achieve healthy school status. For example under PHSE the web site sets out the guidelines for developing a PHSE programme. The importance of monitoring and evaluation are emphasised as is the need for a named member of staff. Alongside each guidance note is the minimum evidence equired by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) in order to achieve healthy school status. It should be emphasisd that the information provided by this web site is largely administrative, rather than practical. It tells the user what hoops they will have to jump through in order to achieve healthy school status, but it does not tell them how to jump though those hoops.

Healthy schoolshttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/education/hias/healthyschools

This web site has been produced by Hampshire County Council as part of their Hantsweb initiative. In many ways it is quite similar to the government web site described above. The content is very similar and is even presented in a similar way. However it does differ from the government web site in a number of important ways. First, the content is much more accessible via the simplified menu. Starting with a brief account of the healthy schools initiative, the content moves on rapidly to the practical matters dealing with how to set up a healthy school. This includes details of necessary audits required and how to undertake them. How to set up a healthy school team, it even includes information on the awards ceremony that is available for those who achieve healthy school status.

Associated with the four themes are a number of resources in the form of links to relevant web sites as well as documents and information leaflets that can be freely downloaded.

Web sites such as this must illustrate what they are trying to achieve, preferably with case studies from which other schools might learn. The Healthy Schools in Action link provided here does this, though the casual user might not appreciate it from the link information provided. The link gives the user access to two newsletters that are in pdf format an can be read online. It may not sound very exciting, but these newsletters are really a collection of case studies from Hampshire schools. It is a pity this information was not made available as a sub section of the main web site, presented in html format, allowing links to the different topic areas. There is a lot of useful information in these newsletters and newcomers to healthy schools could learn a great deal, but it does need to be made more accessible. Finally, for school staff who do not know where to start with their own healthy schools scheme, there is a particularly useful frequently asked questions (FAQ) section that should be able to answer most queries.

Leeds Healthy Schoolswww.educationleeds.co.uk/HealthySchools/index.aspx

This is another local authority web site but it has a number of features that mark it out from the Hampshire web site and are therefore worth a look at, but first a criticism. The font used for this web site is very small, and in an era of disability awareness and equal access, it needs to be changed. The designers of this web site have gone to the trouble of providing the content in Bengali, Chinese, Punjabi and Urdu so they are obviously aware of equality issues, but they do need to focus on the visual design to make it more accessible.

The first aspect of the content that users will find most useful is the “Leeds Healthy Schools Toolkit”. This is a set of six documents that can be downloaded and will provide users with all the formal documentation they will require if they wish to adopt the healthy schools initiative. Although aimed at schools in Leeds they could be easily adapted by schools from other authorities.

The web site also provides some “Good Practice Case Studies” that are very good. These are documents that have been submitted by local schools who are striving for healthy schools status. They include a statement of the problem faced, what was done to overcome the problem, how the solution was evaluated, and in some cases, even how the solution was funded. These are very readable and most users will find something of interest and perhaps even learn something that could be applied to their own school.

Healthy Schools Nottinghamwww.nottinghamhealthyschools.org.uk/

This web site starts by celebrating the 24 schools in Nottingham that have achieved he Gold Standard for Healthy Schools. As with the previous web sites the main menu has links to the four main themes of the healthy school programme. Where this web site scores over others is in the list of downloads that are available for each of the themes. The standards for each of the four themes are clearly explained and the requirements to meet these standards are set out in language that lay people, as well as teachers, will easily understand.

A novel feature in this web site that others might want to emulate is the Resource Review section. Here users will find a list of resources that may be used with each of the four themes of healthy schools. Some of these resources are freely available and appropriate web site addresses are provided. Others are published commercially and details of the publisher and costs can be found. What is most useful though is that each of these resources has been reviewed and given a star rating (up to five) by people who are actively involved in healthy schools projects. It is also possible for users to add their own comments if they are familiar with a particular resource. It should be added that although there are a large number of resource reviews available, at the time of writing, they were mainly focused on the PHSE theme.

Health Promoting Schoolswww.healthpromotingschools.co.uk/

This web site is run by the Health Promoting Schools unit in Scotland. The organisation and design of this web site reflects the key stakeholders in the healthy schools initiative, i.e. the practitioners, family and community, young people, and children. Clicking on the appropriate link will take the user to the resources available for that particular stakeholder group. The section for children is aimed at primary school level and contains masses of interactive games, screen savers, pictures and other resources appropriate for this age group. The part of the web site aimed at young people is very similar, but with the games and other resources designed for slightly older children.

For parents and carers the family and community section explains the healthy school initiative and suggests ways in which they might want to get involved. There are no games in this section but there are other downloadable resources that parents will find of interest.

The practitioners section is aimed at teachers, catering staff, health educators, school nurses, in fact any professional who may have a role within a healthy schools project. As might be expected, this is a rather more formal part of the web site, it emphasises, standards to be met, required documentation, and strategy papers to help with the implementation of a healthy schools programme. This excellent web site has been well thought out and can be used by everyone involved in healthy schools projects. Whether the user be a director of education, a teacher, a parent, or a child, they will all find something of interest within this web site. Highly recommended.