Healthy School and Positive Health reinforce each other

Schools are an ideal environment for teaching children and young people a healthy lifestyle, so that they grow up healthy and stay healthy. To achieve this, schools can use Healthy School, through which they work systematically and comprehensively on various lifestyle themes using the Healthy School approach, such as Sports and Exercise, Well-being and/or Relationships and Sexuality. Schools can also use Positive Health to look at ‘health’ in a broad sense. This programme focuses on the needs and capabilities of the individual. Tools are available for young people, such as the Positive Health Children’s Tool for ages 8–16 and the Youth Tool for ages 16–25.

Background

Several regional public health services and primary schools in the Netherlands already use the Healthy School approach in combination with the individual Children’s Tool. Healthy School wanted to learn about users’ experiences, in order to gain insight into how Healthy School and Positive Health can be used together and what this achieves.

Research question

The Healthy School programme and the Institute for Positive Health (iPH) therefore jointly initiated an internship addressing the following research question: ‘How are the Healthy School approach and the iPH Children’s Tool used together, and can they reinforce each other?’

Method

To answer the research question, interviews were conducted in spring 2021 with five primary schools (two teachers and three principals) and four Healthy School advisers. All participants worked with the Healthy School approach and/or Positive Health.

Conclusion: Healthy School and Positive Health reinforce each other

We found that interviewees had mainly positive experiences and that working with Positive Health and Healthy School reinforced each other, regardless of whether this took place on a structural or occasional basis. Healthy School promotes a healthy lifestyle by providing structure, while Positive Health mainly promotes a pleasant atmosphere and a good relationship between teachers and students.

Various (success) factors are important for effectively using both programmes together, such as the level of enthusiasm and the ability of the person working on health at the school to make connections. Support from colleagues and school management is also indispensable. Thirdly, sustained attention to health and, fourthly, the presence of a vision and understanding of health policy at the school are important. The interviewees also mentioned various organisational (success) factors, such as training in working with Positive Health, support from the regional public health service’s Healthy School adviser, exchanging experiences and providing teachers with clear instructions. Finally, a clear overview of Healthy School activities that a school can use after working with the Positive Health Children’s Tool could be helpful.

Note and next steps

Despite the small group of interviewees, the experiences and insights collected were consistent and positive. Healthy School and iPH are therefore in discussion to further strengthen their collaboration, taking developments in the Children’s Tool and Healthy School into account. They are working towards a joint ambition and joint efforts, so that education professionals ultimately become more familiar with Positive Health and see how they can combine it with their work.