BEDALE High has become the 150th school to sign up to the challenge of completing the changes needed to achieve Healthy School accreditation from the county council.

The Healthy Schools award scheme was launched by North Yorkshire County Council in October 2019, using funding from its public health grant.

The online scheme supports schools to work towards improving the health and wellbeing of pupils and staff through teaching and learning initiatives across four key areas: personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).

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This includes advice on building relationships; emotional health and wellbeing; active lifestyles; and food in schools, including snacks and packed lunches.

The scheme has a dedicated website, which enables schools to work towards Bronze, Silver and Gold Healthy School awards, and teachers can take advantage of free training sessions around the county.

Bedale High teacher Andy Childe said: “I went to the Healthy Schools launch event at Harlow Carr last year and I was really excited about getting involved in the scheme. “Our senior leadership team agreed we should go for the Silver Award, and focus on the themes of emotional health and wellbeing and personal, social and health education (PSHE).

“I feel that in secondary schools, staff and students are facing increasing pressures from both inside and outside the classroom.

“There is an ongoing challenge to get the balance right when it comes to ensuring that we are giving our students the best possible academic provision, while also taking good care of the emotional health and wellbeing of everyone within our school community. It is vital that we keep this issue at the forefront of our plans and commitments as we move forward and believe that participation in the Healthy Schools programme will help us achieve this goal.

“We’ve already developed a staff wellbeing group, appointed two year 11 student leaders for ‘student wellbeing’ and begun a review of our taught PSHE curriculum that every single student receives.

“The school is also working hard to ensure that the importance of emotional health and wellbeing, not just academic success, are integral to everything we do”.

County Councillor Caroline Dickinson, executive member for public health, said: “The Healthy Schools programme is playing a very important part in our ongoing work to deliver Young and Yorkshire 2, the North Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Plan.

“Young and Yorkshire 2 is driven by the vision that our county will be ‘a place of opportunity where all children and young people are happy, healthy and achieving’.”

All North Yorkshire County Council schools can sign up to the scheme at no cost for an initial two years.