Health and Well-Being

West Town Lane Academy recognises the important role it plays in supporting the health and well-being of our children and young people; including physical, mental and emotional health. We recognise our responsibility to educate and inform children, so that they can make appropriate choices about their own and others’ health. We strive to provide an environment, which is conducive with a healthy lifestyle, and actively promote healthy practices, through education, role modelling and opportunities.

As a Rights Respecting School, West Town Lane Academy acknowledges the importance of all children’s rights, and in the case of Healthy Schools we strive to encompass Article 24.

Meet our Healthy Heroes

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The Healthy Heroes are a group of children, one from each class, who champion healthy lifestyles and work together to promote health and wellbeing amongst their classmates.

As a challenge this term, our new Healthy Heroes have produced posters to promote a healthy lifestyle. Some have focused on one aspect of living healthily and others have thought about all aspects of health and wellbeing. Below are a selection of their amazing efforts! Well done Healthy Heroes!

Mental Health and Wellbeing

In term 1, our whole school was thinking about our mental health and wellbeing, and produced some amazing work and displays. Each year group thought about how we can maintain and improve our mental health, through a range of activities. Below are examples of some of our wonderful learning displays.

As a school we are supported by Bristol Healthy Schools and have recently been awarded their Physical Education Badge, which focuses on children, families and staff being active and enjoying sports and physical activities.

Bristol Healthy Schools Physical Education Badge

Last year’s Healthy Heroes surveyed their classes about extra-curricular activities, in particular sporting activities. They discovered that about half of the children attended at least one after school sports club during the year. They also asked children what prevented them from attending and what sports activities they would like to see the school offering as we would like to increase uptake in the future. The children’s suggestions for additional clubs were shared with the staff and some new clubs (gymnastics and rugby) have been offered this year.

We were awarded the Bristol Healthy Schools PE Badge in November 2019. Everyone involved was delighted that the award acknowledged the whole school’s efforts to improve access to, enjoyment of and participation in sports and physical activity. A special thanks goes to the Healthy Heroes for their commitment to encouraging everyone to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

A few years ago the school introduced The Daily Mile, by marking two tracks around the school, which when run a number of times equates to a mile. Children regularly complete the mile during PE lessons and we hope to increase the children’s use of the track this year, so that they can build up to a mile a day.

Active Travel

As part of our commitment to healthy living, at West Town Lane Academy, we encourage the children, parents and staff to travel to and from school in a more active and sustainable manner. This includes walking, scooting or cycling. To make sure our children are can travel without harm we regularly talk about road safety and this year we have held scooter skills sessions for Year 1 and Bikeability in Year 5. The school has plenty of safe parking pods where children and adults store their bicycles and scooters during the day.

We are currently working towards a Modeshift Stars Bronze Award for active travel. As part of our work towards the award, the Healthy Heroes recently surveyed the whole school about their methods of travel to and from school. The surveys painted a very positive picture with lots of children walking, cycling or scooting to school.

Living Streets is a national charitable organisation committed to encouraging people to walk to work, school and local amenities. Each week during lockdown they are producing materials for children to encourage walking, whether for pleasure or as a means of travelling to and from school. Why not check out their resources if you are looking for ways to make your walks more enjoyable? https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/5313/embrace-final.pdf https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/media/5302/share-final.pdf

Competitors’ Corner

The Healthy Heroes want to encourage everyone in our school community to be healthy and active and to celebrate the participation of all (children, parents/carers and staff). So if you enjoy sport, whether it is a team game or an individual sporting activity, why not send in a photo and a brief description and inspire others to take up your favourite activity?