Children's health and wellbeing has been a major concern for the Government since the late 1990's and they have found a number of ways to address this, Healthy Schools being one of them, based on the belief that you should:

"Teach a child to be healthy because a healthy child is happier and learns better."

A partnership was formed between education and health in order to improve the health and education of future generations. It addresses the needs of whole communities and aims to reduce the inequalities between them.

Healthy Schools work extends beyond the school day and needs the support of families to reinforce the messages given to children and young people about having healthy lifestyles.

Every Child Matters (ECM) is a shared programme of change to improve outcomes for all children and young people. Five outcomes were identified that are most important to children and young people:

• be healthy
• stay safe
• enjoy and achieve
• make a positive contribution
• achieve economic well-being

Schools play a central role in helping to create healthy and happy children and young people, who do better in learning and in life. They are a vital part of our work to deliver the ‘Be healthy’ and ‘Stay safe’ outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda.

       Click here for more details on Every Child Matters.