During the formative years that are so crucial to their development, children and youth spend a large share of their waking hours in school. This is when habits form, when beliefs about our bodies and our worth take root, and when we learn whether the people and systems around us can be trusted to care about us. Research asserts that healthy environments during these years can help protect well-being well into adulthood. That’s why this year, we urge you to approach National Healthy Schools Week as though its effects will last for decades. The point is not only what happens October 5-9, but it’s also what the week can start.
Well-being is a school-wide culture
The Canadian Healthy Schools Alliance is a network of organizations promoting health and well-being in school communities to improve learning and set students up for lifelong success. The Alliance pushes back on the idea that a healthy breakfast plus some physical activity produces a student who is ready to learn. Its approach looks at the whole school system: the students, the staff, and the leaders who shape daily life in the building. Where a single assembly promoting health is forgotten by spring, a school culture where movement, belonging, and well-being are part of how things work gives students something to absorb over multiple years. This repeated exposure is where the protective potential lies, and when done right, can echo across the decades.
Celebrate National Healthy Schools Week, then build something that outlasts it.
The Alliance’s National Healthy Schools Week page offers sample activities covering six priority health topics, split into grade groupings so you can choose what fits your students. Use them, and enjoy the week. Then build something that outlasts it!
This is where the Healthy Schools Recognition Program comes in. It’s a self-directed, step-based program that strengthens new and existing school-based health initiatives that can influence student belonging, school connectedness, and health and well-being. It guides schools through a 4-step process designed to support meaningful, sustainable change, and it lets each school shape its own path. The best part is that you don’t start from zero. Most schools are already doing more than they realize: a garden club, a breakfast program, a wellness committee, a teacher who runs lunchtime intramurals. The program helps you connect those efforts into something intentional, so they don’t disappear when one champion moves on.
If your whole school is not quite there, but you are ready to take your personal understanding to the next level, enroll in the Building Healthy School Communities online course. It is a free, 4-part online course that lays the foundations for understanding well-being in the context of education settings. The modules include: Conceptualizing Well-being, Wellness in Education Settings, Introduction to Comprehensive School Health, and Sources of Health Information. The full course takes about 1.5 hours to complete.
A final question to take into the week
Before Friday, ask yourself and your team: What is one thing we can start this week that our students will still be experiencing in June and beyond? We can’t know exactly how a Grade 3 student’s school experience will shape their health at 40. But we can make sure the school years give them every reasonable chance.
written by Kerri Murray
