Our year-long Wellbeing Governors campaign has spent the last two terms explaining the importance of putting mental health and wellbeing at the heart of your school’s agenda. We’ve helped equip governors with the knowledge to improve mental health and wellbeing provision at their school for both pupils and staff. In the final term of our campaign, we’ll be looking at another aspect underpinning a sustainable, whole-school approach to wellbeing: physical activity.
Over the next 12 weeks we’ll explore the links between physical activity levels in schools and positive mental health, improved behaviour and engagement, and higher educational attainment. We’ll also consider the crucial role governors play in creating a culture in their schools that encourages as many pupils, and staff, to embrace more active living.
There are a few things to bear in mind as we explore this topic. Firstly, we’re using the term physical activity because it’s important to emphasise that this isn’t just an issue of the P.E. or sports’ provision at schools (although these are key). Everyone is different, so schools should look at a wide range of methods of encouraging more active lifestyles to address the needs and behaviours of all students, and it must be genuinely impactful.
Secondly, schools will face different challenges in improving levels of physical activity, and no one-size-fits-all solution exists. Governors should work with their SLT to explore and measure what their school’s status quo is and then carefully plan their approach, with sustainable and broad improvement in mind.
And lastly, as ever, governors should remember their strategic role and avoid ‘becoming operational’. Instead, it’s the governors’ role to assist in longer-term planning, offering the necessary support and challenge to achieve the school’s goals.
We’re fortunate to be working with a range of partners this term, who’ll be contributing to our campaign and giving us the benefit of their expertise and experience.
Keep up to date with the campaign
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