Welcome back to a new school year. We hope you had a wonderful summer break and are feeling recharged and ready to go.

We look forward to working with you this year.

UPDATE

Lead Health & Wellbeing Schools

We will be working with you to revise the role of a Lead School as we look to mobilise our new strategy. This means moving away from simply delivering programmes to working with us much more on system change and removing the barrier to health and wellbeing in education. You will still be able to access our programmes, but they will be open to any school in England and will be accessed through the school recruitment pages of our website.

This new process will start with the Lead School virtual event on Wednesday 12 October where we will explore our new ways of working, the implications for you as a school, and developing a way of supporting, funding, and engaging with you in the weeks and months to come. You can book your place via this link and the Zoom link will be shared closer to the date.

Please also hold the date in the diary for the second virtual event taking place on Tuesday 29 November.

ACTIONS

Access to Programmes

We have launched three programmes that you can express an interest in running this academic year. They are listed below and you can complete the expression of interest forms here. 

The window is open until Friday 07 October 2022. Once we have the expressions of interest in, we will make a decision as to which schools will be involved. This is a new way of working, as we want to gauge the level of demand for our programmes and make sure we are targeting the schools and communities that need our help the most to build back from Covid. The three programmes we have focused on physical and mental health are:

• Active in Mind - an Athlete Mentor and student-led intervention, designed around the importance of looking after the body, mindset, and environment to improve mental health and wellbeing issues present your school
• Active in Mind (teacher CPD) - designed to equip educators with the principles of supporting positive physical and mental health for the benefit of targeted groups of pupils who are struggling with engaging with learning and school life
• Boys Move - a professional development programme designed to equip educators with the principles of how to use sport and play to address the mental health and wellbeing issues of adolescent boys and engage them with learning.

Please sign up your school if you wish to be involved.

STORIES

How chronic stress stunts child growth – Loughborough University

As we go through life, our health and wellbeing is impacted by a variety of factors that in turn affect our growth and development.

School sport was a hellscape for me. At 41 I’m hooked on exercise for the first time – The Guardian

I felt self-conscious in PE class from the age of five because I was slower than everyone else. So I checked myself out of an active lifestyle until well into adulthood.

Cost of living crisis threatens to stunt children’s physical development, paediatricians warn – i news

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has urged the Government to bring support packages in line with the rising prices of energy, food, and housing to tackle the concerns around children’s health.

Teenagers who sleep less than seven hours a night are up to 70 PER CENT more likely to be obese, study finds – Daily Mail

Teenagers who sleep less than seven hours a night are up to 70 per cent more likely to be obese or overweight, a study claims.