Pupils to showcase healthy living campaign

International Year of Co-operatives logo

Youngsters from around the borough will be putting their efforts to promote healthy living in the spotlight at a special event later this month.

The Rochdale Healthy Schools Showcase at Middleton Arena on Wednesday 27 June will feature presentations and workshops to illustrate how pupils and their teachers are addressing the issue.

Working to national Healthy Schools guidelines, many schools have developed the ‘enhanced model’ which provides them with a framework to demonstrate how they are really making a change to students’ health and well being.

Primary schools have focused on issues such as oral health, emotional health and well being, physical activity and healthy eating while the high schools have looked at risk taking behaviour including alcohol and substance misuse as well as emotional health and well being.

Partnership working has enabled the schools to benefit from the expertise of a number of agencies including Link4life, School Health Teams, Oral Health, British Heart Foundation, Schools Nutritionist and the Dietetics Team.

The event at Middleton Arena will provide schools that have worked on the enhanced status with the opportunity to share the knowledge they have gained.

There are now 35 primary schools and three high schools in the borough working on the enhanced model. The remainder of the schools are maintaining their official status as ‘healthy schools’ and will move onto the enhanced status in the future.

Councillor Donna Martin, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “It is wonderful that pupils and their teachers are taking the lead in getting across the message of how important a healthy lifestyle is.

“As we are currently celebrating the International Year of Co-operatives there is no better time for schools to be coming together for the benefit of all.”