The Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes (WNHSS) was launched in 1999 to encourage the development of local healthy school schemes within a national framework. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises the WNHSS as playing a key role in promoting the health of children and young people, and the scheme has been rolled out across Wales since 2000.
Within the scheme, there are seven different health topics that schools need to address. These include:
- Food and Fitness
- Mental and Emotional Health and Well Being
- Personal Development and Relationships
- Substance Use and Misuse
- Environment
- Safety
- Hygiene
A health promoting school is…
- a happy school;
- a caring community which is concerned with the health of all its members: pupils, teachers, non-teaching staff and all those who interact with it;
- encourages pupils to recognise that what they do counts;
- recognises that health education is not just taught in the classroom, but is supported and reinforced in the daily life of the school and local community;
- provides all the information pupils require about nutrition, exercise, relationships & sexuality, smoking, drugs & alcohol and encourages them to take responsibility for their own actions.