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Yealmpstone Farm Primary School

'The doorway to learning for the whole community.'

Healthy Schools Project

Healthy Schools Project

Our school is working in a partnership with schools in Turkey, Lithuania, France and Greece to share our culture and beliefs about how we can make sure we have healthy bodies and minds. We have worked with the children to help them to develop their understanding of how exercise helps to keep us healthy and what kinds of food are healthy. Each of the countries have developed a space on their website to share the project and let our communities know.

Sedentarism, unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical exercise among school children represent a worrying problem which has arisen due
mainly to the fact that in the past years' technology has pushed children indoors. This aspect, doubled by the fact that parents are now too busy
to cater for their children’s eating habits have increased the number of obesity cases among school children. In addition to causing various
physical disabilities and psychological problems, excess weight drastically increases a person’s risk of developing a number of diseases and has
a negative psychological impact.

Objectives
- To decrease the number of consumers of fast food in the target group by at least 50% after the 2 project years.
To raise the awareness of at least 70% of participants about the principles of healthy eating;
- To increase physical activity to a minimum of 1 hour per day for 60% of students in the TG;
- to improve communication skills, interpersonal skills and self-confidence in a European environment of at least 65% of participants
- To exchange ideas and practices with other European schools in order for teachers to produce one brochure for students and parents and one
brochure for schools.
- To develop knowledge about the diversity of European sports and cultures of at least 70% participants.

Participants
The project addresses three target groups – the first one is that of students aged 6-11, students with weight problems as well as regular students
(the reason for the choice of this age range is that at these ages, students start developing long-term behaviours, so it is a critical age for the
development of the future adults). They will be active in the activities as hosts. The second group is that of parents – we will inform them about
the project development and involve them in the local activities so as to raise their awareness about the importance of a healthy diet for their
children’s development. We want parents to join our activities, to observe their children in interaction, to see how happy they are and to determine
them to continue this way of living at home, to involve their children in outdoor activities as much as possible. Thirdly, teachers will participate in
exchanges. They will be able to exchange experiences, to analyse the similarities, differences, identify good practices and apply them in their
own schools. They will learn from their European peers and become resources for their colleagues in order to ensure the sustainability of the
project results.