Healthy Schools
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Healthy Eating 


How can Healthy Eating enhance your school?

Food and drink can have a huge impact on children’s behaviour and concentration in school.  Many schools have reported anecdotal evidence to improved behaviour and attention with the introduction of water in schools, new school meals and fruit and vegetables as snack foods.  There is some scientific evidence to show breakfast promotes skills important for learning including attention and alertness, and that glucose from carbohydrates in the diet have a positive effect on intellectual performance. 


Cookery Club at Unstone Junior School 


In addition to having children who aren’t ‘climbing the walls’, educating children on the balance of good health, equipping them with cooking skills and enabling them to make informed choices about their lifestyles hopefully leads to healthy adults as a balanced diet has many other health benefits. 

Healthy Eating and Healthy Schools

To achieve National Healthy Schools Status within Healthy Eating is to provide a consistent approach.  Increasing children’s and parent’s knowledge of a balanced diet, the importance of water and oral health issues is vital in enabling them to make informed choices about their own or their children’s health.  These choices can be made easier in the environment the school creates, with what food and drink options are available and promoted. 


A Whole School Food Policy should reflect and support the school’s practice around food and drink issues ensuring this consistent approach e.g. all staff have the same approach to children bringing in confectionary from a holiday to give to all the children or the use of confectionary as rewards.  Consultation work with parents and children to gain an understanding of their views and to hear their ideas is an essential part of making these changes positive and supported ones in school. 

NHSS Criteria for Healthy Eating
1. Has an identified member of the senior management team to oversee all aspects of food in schools
2. Ensures provision of training in practical food education for staff, including diet, nutrition, food safety and hygiene
3. Has a whole school food policy – developed through wide consultation, implemented, monitored and evaluated for impact
4. Involves children/young people and parents/carers in guiding food policy and practice within the school, enables them to contribute  to healthy eating and acts on their feedback
5. Has a welcoming eating environment that encourages the positive social interaction of children/young people (see Food in Schools guidance)
6. Ensures that breakfast club, tuck shop, vending machine and after school food service (where available in school)  meets or exceeds current DfES school food standards
7. Has a school lunch service that meets or exceeds current DfES standards for school lunches
8. Monitors children/young people’s menus and food choices to inform policy development and provision
9. Ensures that children/young people have opportunities to learn about different types of food in the context of a balanced diet (using the Balance of Good Health), and how to plan, budget, prepare and cook meals, understanding the need to avoid the consumption of foods high in salt, sugar and fat and increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables
10. Has easy access to free, clean and palatable drinking water, using the Food in Schools guidance
11. Consults children/young people about food choices throughout the school day using school councils, Healthy School task groups or other representative pupil bodies

Healthy Eating Section of the website includes:

  Criteria
Criteria and minimum evidence required to achieve NHSS, including links to Ofsted Self Evaluation Form. 
  Outcomes
Qualitative and quantitative outcome examples needed for the NHHS process. 
  Guidance
Documents and information related to the Healthy Eating core theme, that schools may find useful. 
  Policies
Link to the policies section, providing guidance for creating policies. 
  Training
Link to the training section, outlining available training opportunities in Derbyshire and in school for staff and pupils. 
  Resources/Projects
Local and national resources or projects linked to the Healthy Eating core theme.
Case Studies
Link to the case studies section, where Derbyshire Schools and the Healthy Schools team share projects and practice that have promoted health and wellbeing.
Related Initiatives
Local and national initiatives information, that contribute towards the Healthy Eating core theme.
Web Links
Link to a list of useful external websites.