Nutrition is essential for student success. Healthy, active, and well-nourished children are more likely to attend school and are more prepared and motivated to learn. Although the primary responsibility of schools is to foster academic achievement, schools have an exceptional opportunity to guide children toward healthier lifestyles by creating a healthy nutrition environment.
The school environment should encourage all students to make healthy eating choices and be physically active throughout the school day. We know schools cannot be responsible for the health and safety of their students at all times (such as when students area at home or out in the community); however, schools can and should ensure that students learn the knowledge and skills needed to make healthy decisions. School leaders can help encourage this by helping students make healthy choices using policies and practices thatcreate a school environment that supports clear expectations for healthy behavior by faculty and staff, as well as students.
The goal of the new Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) model developed by ASCD and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to support behaviors that enhance the health and well-being of students and staff through learning opportunities that help students acquire not only the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of a health-literate individual, but also the motivation to behave in healthy ways. The WSCC model will establish an environment within the school that extends to the family and community and enables, motivates, supports, and reinforces healthy behaviors. It will bring together schools and the resources of other public institutions, including voluntary health and youth-serving agencies, the medical profession, the faith community, and local governments—all of which are responsible for providing the community with assets to help children become healthy, happy, productive adult citizens.
RESOURCES
Reducing Junk Food Without Hurting the Bottom Line
To illustrate how schools and districts can implement strong nutrition standards for competitive foods without significant financial losses, the CDC supported a study by the Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI) and the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) to examine eight school districts across the country. IPHI published The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:
6-24-14 The Whole Child Blog — Equity: The Driver for School Improvement?
The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education: Equity: The Driver for School Improvement?What will drive school improvement in the future? Some believe that it will be choice—ensuring that students have choice in what and how they learn; allowing teachers to have greater autonomy in the classroom; and, possibly, providing families expanded choice of schools. For others the key driver may be ensurin