Schools celebrate health Oscar

Schools from all over the borough will be honoured at a special celebration at Rochdale Town Hall on 19 June.

Pupils and staff from schools will be at the Town Hall to celebrate Rochdale's Beacon Status for Healthy Schools. Sixteen schools will also be presented with plaques to mark their success at achieving Healthy Schools Status.

Beacon Status, a prestigious national award, recognises Rochdale borough's healthy schools programme as one of the best in the country. It shows that schools, Rochdale Council and the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust are making a united and determined effort to create healthy and happy children who do better in learning and in life.

The Healthy School Status plaques are awarded to schools by the Government to salute good practice in their healthy schools work.

The awards will be presented by Terry Piggott, Rochdale Council's Executive Director for Children, Schools and Families, Emma Buxbaum, Principal Consultant, Improvement and Development Agency, and by Sue Hackett the Council's Healthy Schools Manager.

At the awards celebration, pupils from local schools will also be sharing their good ideas for improving health and learning. Pupils will be preparing healthy packed lunches, participating in playground activities and demonstrating peer massage in a series of workshops showcasing a wide range of healthy schools activities.

Sue Hackett, Rochdale Council's Healthy Schools Manager, said: "The Beacon Status event allows us to applaud the amazing work being done by schools throughout the borough to encourage young people to lead happy and healthy lives.

"It is fantastic to see so many pupils, parents, carers and staff working together to make our schools 'Healthy Schools'. We are recruiting new schools to the programme all the time, which means that the health and well-being of pupils in the borough can only get better."

Over the next 12 months, Rochdale will be sharing expertise and knowledge with other councils by hosting open days and learning exchanges. Belfield Community Primary School was recently featured in the professional magazine 'Children Now' as an example of good practice in Rochdale.