Healthy Schools Overview

What is a healthy school?

A healthy school is a place where students have many opportunities to foster their physical, mental, social, and intellectual development. Healthy schools work with partners from the health and education sectors, and with those from the broader community, to support students to develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime.

Many schools across B.C. continue to develop innovative ways to support the health of their students, staff, and community. Schools are creating walking school buses, connecting students with nature and community, building school-community food gardens, developing safe and caring school policies and practices, and offering health-promoting fundraising events.

Healthy Schools BC

  • Healthy Schools BC is a partnership between the ministries of health and education, Dedicated Action for School Health (DASH), health authorities, education partners, and other key stakeholders.
  • Healthy Schools BC aims to build the capacity of the health and education sectors to effectively implement healthy school initiatives using a comprehensive school health approach.

What is Comprehensive School Health (CSH)?

  • CSH isn’t a program. It’s a way of working.
  • CSH is about looking at all the environments or areas within a school where health can be promoted, and coordinating actions across these areas.
  • Healthy students are better learners, and better educated students are healthier.
  • CSH can promote both health and education outcomes.
  • CSH will look different in each school community.

BC Curriculum – Physical and Health Education (PHE)

  • Designed to develop educated citizens who have the knowledge, skills, and understandings they need to be safe, active, and healthy citizens throughout their lives.
  • PHE curriculum focuses on competencies that support life-long learning—competencies that can contribute to personal lives and career aspirations.
  • The PHE curriculum is strongly linked to the personal awareness and responsibility core competency.

Students are expected to:

  • develop an understanding of the many aspects of well-being, including physical, mental, and social
  • develop the movement knowledge, skills, and understandings needed for lifelong participation in a range of physical activities
  • develop knowledge, skills, and strategies for building respectful relationships, positive self-identity, self-determination, and mental well-being
  • demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and strategies needed to make informed decisions that support personal and community health and safety

Resources

General:

Active Living:

Healthy Eating:

Healthy Practices:

  • Resources on Healthy Screen & Online Practices ERASE

Mental Health:

Healthy Schools Public Health Nurse (supporting the Langley School District):

Fraser Health’s healthy schools nurses support school districts and identified (Focus) schools to promote the physical, emotional and social well-being of students.

Our program tailors our services to meet the specific needs of each district and school we work with. We aim to foster a consistent and comprehensive school health approach by:

  • sharing data and evidence-based resources;
  • supporting the development of healthy school policies;
  • assisting with healthy living grant applications;
  • linking schools to Fraser Health or community-based programs and services, and
  • building capacity within the school for integrating and sustaining a culture of healthy living.

We value our partnerships with all school community members and strive to bring a health equity lens to our work.

For more information, please contact: publicnurse@sd35.bc.ca

Or visit Fraser Health’s Healthy Schools Program page