Health Promoting Schools

The framework was developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It is a framework that encourages schools to teach and address health issues.  The framework consists of three areas different areas represented in the diagram below; Curriculum, teaching and learning; School organisation, ethos and environment; and Partnerships and services.

As more adolescents are more exposed to the media now more than ever, it is important to understand that adolescent’s are still in a phase of brain development and emotional regulation and often susceptible to peer pressure. -  they take many influences of what they see on television and social media. Body image, and the health industry have become very big, which has led to the increase in eating disorders and mental health issues due to the desire to look like people that they see everyday on TV and social media. 

A persons food/diet and nutrition all play a major role in there physical health. Schools can  ensure subjects such as nutrition are learnt during a child's schooling years to be able to teach them the basics of what being healthy is and what the life long benefits can be.With a subject such as Food and Nutrition in the curriculum, the child will learn life long healthy eating habits that can prevent and slow the risk of diseases such as obesity or heart disease.

To promote this subject to make it desirable for students, programs and teaching materials are needed to be consider for all students' learning styles and needs. This maybe methods of teaching with more technology due to more advance technological equipment made available in the recent years.

Another way to engage students in there learning to promote health is dedicating a whole 'Health' classroom where health subjects can be taught such as Food and Nutrition. A classroom like this can create a space for students who have similar interests to connect with one another and share experiences in a learning environment.

A good way to help students learn is to involve the parents in school the school curriculum and also the health guidelines provided by the Australian Government. If parents and carers have the knowledge of the diet and physical activity guidelines that can help there children further in becoming healthy and having a positive outlook on themselves and they're lives.