Healthy Schools London celebrates 10 years of tackling health inequalities in Barnet

On Wednesday 5 July, pupils and staff from schools and early years settings across Barnet gathered at Hendon Town Hall for this year’s Healthy Schools London and Healthy Early Years London awards ceremony and 10-year anniversary celebration event.

The award programmes work with schools and early years settings to improve children and young people’s wellbeing by adopting a whole school approach to health areas such as healthy eating, physical activity, and emotional wellbeing.

This year also marked the 10-year anniversary of the Healthy Schools London programme in the borough, with Barnet schools first participating in the scheme in September 2013. The event included special recognition of those schools who have shown the highest engagement across the 10 years.

The celebration included a healthy lunch, presentations and examples of good practice from local settings and schools, guest speakers Cllr Alison Moore and Director of Public Health Dr Tamara Djuretic, and a lively movement break got everyone up out of their seats, led by pupils and Barnet’s Child Weight Management Programme Manager for Better Gyms, George Bell.

Cllr Alison Moore, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board, said:  “Our Healthy Schools and Healthy Early Years programmes are giving our children essential knowledge and understanding to help them grow into healthy and resilient individuals. Empowering our children and recognising the importance of education to help the next generation make healthy choices plays a huge part in reducing the health inequalities we have in Barnet.  Prevention is better than cure, and these programmes are an excellent example of prevention in action. I’m incredibly proud of all of our participating pupils and staff who are doing fantastic work to improve health and wellbeing in Barnet – and I look forward to watching the programme continue to grow and help close the health gap in Barnet over the next 10 years.”

Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Tony Vourou, drew the celebrations to a close by recognising the great work of the pupils and their teachers, and presenting them with their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.

In Barnet, 120 schools are registered on the Healthy Schools London programme (so far Barnet schools have achieved 75 Bronze, 65 Silver, 35 Gold) and 109 settings are taking part in the Healthy Early Years programme (achievements include 96 First Steps, 49 Bronze, 17 Silver, 1 Gold, with 9 more actively working towards it).

Any school or early years setting can apply, and all are encouraged to participate in the free schemes. Participating schools have reported positive impacts on attainment and attendance, and have seen improvements in their pupils’ confidence, concentration and health and wellbeing.

Find out more about Healthy Schools London and Healthy Early Years London.