What is a Health Promoting School? Part 2 of 2

What is a health promoting school? – Part 2

Dr Hugh Shannon, a Senior Lecturer in HPE at Queensland University of Technology speaks with authors Sue Dimitrijevich (Health education consultant & former school principal) and Amanda Ferguson (Project development officer – Nutritionist, Foodcore Nutrition Services) about tips and insights from the latest edition of the book ‘What is a health promoting school? Increasing health literacy in WA schools’.

Part 2 continues the theme of application and how a health promoting school (HPS) can be fostered. Discussion includes HPS action planning, guest speaker considerations and the value of trained health education teachers as a school community resource. This podcast concludes with the importance of sharing practices and what can be gained from exploring case studies which document context, activities, outcomes, highlights, challenges, lessons learnt, tips for success and sustainability.

For further information and access to a free PDF copy of the book visit:

https://wahpsa.org.au/healthpromotingschools/what-is-a-health-promoting-school/

Transcript

00:00:08 Hugh 

Now continuing the theme of application, if schools are keen to do work in this area, why should they develop an action plan? 

00:00:17 Hugh 

Why should they get to that level of creating an action plan? 

00:00:20 Hugh 

And then as part of that process, consider different external agencies or organizations that they could connect with. 

00:00:29 Amanda 

I think an action plan is, I mean, it's a methodical way of working through things. 

00:00:33 Amanda 

And whether we realise it or not, I think we all develop action plans just in our minds. 

00:00:38 Amanda 

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning and you think, well, what are my processes for today? 

00:00:41 Amanda 

What do I need to do? 

00:00:42 Amanda 

You're actually writing an action plan in your head. 

00:00:46 Amanda 

For schools, obviously there is a lot more or there are a lot more moving parts. 

00:00:50 Amanda 

So thinking about 

00:00:52 Amanda 

how you're going to achieve those outcomes. 

00:00:55 Amanda 

Because the reason you start a health promotion project in a school is because there's an end goal. 

00:01:00 Amanda 

There is something there that you want to achieve. 

00:01:02 Amanda 

So how you get from point A to point B, and in this case, the action plan that we have in the book has got 11 steps in it. 

00:01:09 Amanda 

It's broken down into small chunks. 

00:01:11 Amanda 

So it makes it really 

00:01:13 Amanda 

easy to chew and digest, for want of a better word. 

00:01:17 Amanda 

Because I think when you've got one person at a school that is the driver, it can seem very daunting. 

00:01:24 Amanda 

And having an action plan gives you the ability to say, okay, for steps one, two and three, I can do this on my own, have a meeting with the principal, get people on board. 

00:01:33 Amanda 

But then from steps sort of four through to 8, we need to engage with some other people and how are we going to do that. 

00:01:40 Amanda 

And I guess that's where that leads into 

00:01:42 Amanda 

engaging with external agencies. 

00:01:45 Amanda 

And, Sue's spoken a lot about, the burden of teachers and we completely understand that in, trying to teach all the STEM subjects and everything else that comes with it. 

00:01:55 Amanda 

Engaging with external organisations is such a benefit for them because you are getting an expert in, an expert in that field. 

00:02:04 Amanda 

And I think that's the most important thing. 

00:02:08 Amanda 

One thing that we realised when we were writing the book, we have some engaging with guest speaker guidelines and there's the basic list of the things that you should do when you're engaging with an external agency or a speaker. 

00:02:22 Amanda 

When we started to write it, we were reflecting with some other people on the committee that specifically focus on sex education and drugs and alcohol and sexual responsibility and things like that. 

00:02:33 Amanda 

And we knew that 

00:02:34 Amanda 

I certainly wasn't the expert and they were. 

00:02:37 Amanda 

So they helped us to write almost an addendum that went onto the website. 

00:02:40 Amanda 

We couldn't put it in the book because it was too long. 

00:02:43 Amanda 

But we then, because we realised that schools needed something else to deal with these sensitive topics. 

00:02:49 Amanda 

So if they were going to engage with an external organisation, these are the things that you should be looking at. 

00:02:54 Amanda 

So that external engagement is so vital. 

00:02:59 Amanda 

but there needs to be some processes in place so that the people that you are engaging with from a school perspective, not that they've been vetted, but that they align with the values of your school and they also align with even, the mission and the values of the WA Health Morning Schools Association is really important. 

00:03:19 Hugh 

Yeah, that's great. 

00:03:20 Hugh 

It's good to hear those tips there around the importance of guest speakers, but also how to quality assure and make sure that 

00:03:28 Hugh 

there is a connection to school intentions and it aligns with the objectives of what we're trying to achieve and leads to better outcomes for students. 

00:03:40 Sue 

Can I just add another point about that, the guidelines for guest speakers? 

00:03:46 Sue 

I think teachers often think that it is a 

00:03:53 Sue 

Maybe they are the experts. 

00:03:56 Sue 

So these people are subject experts. 

00:03:58 Sue 

But I would always say that the teacher is the expert in education and in their class. 

00:04:05 Sue 

And even if the agency has been doing this presentation for, you know, 10 years, it is so vital because we've heard of so many stories where things have gone, 

00:04:22 Sue 

really off track when teachers haven't actually sat down with the external agency and said, what are you going to present? 

00:04:36 Sue 

I need to see what you're going to present. 

00:04:38 Sue 

This is where my kids are at. 

00:04:40 Sue 

And, you know, they need a conversation because even if this agency has done this, you know, 100 times, 

00:04:51 Sue 

it is still may not be exactly what you're thinking it is going to be if you don't talk to them and ask them. 

00:05:00 Sue 

And having that action plan and well, vetting, checking out, it's your accountability. 

00:05:11 Sue 

You don't want to end up on the front page of a newspaper or a social media page when things have gone 

00:05:22 Sue 

And that has happened over the years in WA. 

00:05:26 Sue 

So communication, collaboration, consultation are all really important elements when choosing a guest speaker, as well as all the other things Amanda said. 

00:05:36 Hugh 

That's great advice from both of you there. 

00:05:38 Hugh 

Thanks for sharing. 

00:05:39 Hugh 

I really like that focus on teachers knowing their students. 

00:05:45 Hugh 

They know them so well. 

00:05:46 Hugh 

They know their personalities. 

00:05:48 Hugh 

They know where they're up to in terms of the learning journey. 

00:05:52 Hugh 

Yeah, they just it's it's a partnership really, isn't it? 

00:05:55 Hugh 

When we talk about these these learning opportunities in schools and it's so important that we don't see these as box ticking exercises saying we've done this, we move on, we move on to the next step. 

00:06:05 Hugh 

We, you know, we see it as a as a part, a genuine partnership where people come together and actually have these important conversations. 

00:06:13 Hugh 

And at the center of that are the students. 

00:06:16 Hugh 

Great, great tips. 

00:06:17 Hugh 

So thank you so much there. 

00:06:21 Hugh 

An asset orientation is so important when we look at this sort of work in schools and there was a focus on the importance of having trained health education teachers in schools and having health education teachers that have that background and training and understanding. 

00:06:41 Hugh 

Why are trained health education teachers an important resource in schools? 

00:06:47 Hugh 

That's my first question. 

00:06:48 Hugh 

And then secondly, how can 

00:06:50 Hugh 

they use their skills to be health advocates in their own school contexts. 

00:06:56 Sue 

Well, as we both have said before, the health of children, and which is the future generation, is everyone's business. 

00:07:05 Sue 

It's all teachers, it's all parents. 

00:07:08 Sue 

However, many of our aspects of health and our understandings of information can be a very values-laden area. 

00:07:17 Sue 

And as you said, Hugh, 

00:07:19 Sue 

Teachers are only human. 

00:07:21 Sue 

We do make mistakes. 

00:07:22 Sue 

We do make sometimes less healthier choices than others. 

00:07:28 Sue 

So teachers can often feel that they may be judged in this area or there may be difficult questions, especially in the areas of relationships and sexuality, alcohol and other drug use, those sensitive issues. 

00:07:49 Sue 

that Amanda spoke about. 

00:07:50 Sue 

Trained health education teachers have an understanding of how to deal respectfully, appropriately, and without what we term leaking their values to some extent, I think. 

00:08:05 Sue 

So having a background in the appropriate best practice way of teaching and presenting health education 

00:08:18 Sue 

is really, really valuable. 

00:08:24 Sue 

They're passionate and motivated very often because it's a choice. 

00:08:29 Sue 

I think, particularly in primary schools, teachers have to teach everything. 

00:08:36 Sue 

They have to be so-called experts, subject matter experts in all areas. 

00:08:43 Sue 

But health education, 

00:08:45 Sue 

As I said at the very beginning, in some schools, teachers don't want to do it. 

00:08:52 Sue 

So having this training enables, I think, they're passionate, motivated, enthusiastic teachers. 

00:09:02 Sue 

It also allows them, I think, the opportunity to advocate within the staff room, within the school, within the 

00:09:14 Sue 

parent body, parent community, they can then advocate because they might have some different ideas of how this could work. 

00:09:25 Hugh 

That's fantastic. 

00:09:26 Hugh 

Good, food for thought there. 

00:09:28 Hugh 

And across the country, we see, I guess we see a range of different approaches in terms of how health is taught in schools and between primary and secondary and even within different systems and between different states and territories as well. 

00:09:44 Hugh 

I know in my context here in Queensland, in the secondary system, we have health as part of the personal, social and community health strand of the Australian Curriculum. 

00:09:53 Hugh 

But then we also have a dedicated subject health in the senior secondary school, which is very much around health promotion skills and use of the Ottawa Charter and a range of, you know, frameworks for evaluation. 

00:10:04 Hugh 

And so there's a range of different ways in which health is embedded in the curriculum in schools. 

00:10:10 Hugh 

So it's good to hear those 

00:10:13 Hugh 

those insights there. 

00:10:15 Hugh 

Now, your book includes 10 case studies which cover both primary and secondary schools. 

00:10:24 Hugh 

Each of these case studies includes background information, activity, examples of activities, outcomes, highlights, challenges, lessons learnt, and tips for success and sustainability. 

00:10:38 Hugh 

How can schools, teachers, and other stakeholders who may be connected with schools or have the potential to connect with schools, how can they utilise these case studies for two purposes? 

00:10:49 Hugh 

One, to reflect on their current practices, and secondly, as part of an approach to developing new initiatives. 

00:10:58 Amanda 

I think what's important to remember about the case studies that are in the book is that they are a very small sample of what's going on in WA and it's the one thing that we discussed a lot is that... 

00:11:13 Amanda 

We know that there are so many schools out there doing amazing jobs that simply don't have the time to sit down and write a case study with us. 

00:11:20 Amanda 

So I think it's really important that we acknowledge that. 

00:11:24 Amanda 

So there's 10 case studies in the book with an additional 3 on the website and all are equally deserving of being in the book and are an extraordinary 

00:11:35 Amanda 

example of what can be done when you pull a group of people together who are passionate about something in a school. 

00:11:41 Amanda 

And I think for other schools to use this book, it gives them a sense of it can be done, but also the case studies are quite honest with the barriers and the enablers as well. 

00:11:53 Amanda 

And I think that that's a really important learning curve for people that are starting out their health promotion journey. 

00:11:59 Amanda 

And that's what these case studies talk about, how did we start? 

00:12:04 Amanda 

how did we progress? 

00:12:07 Amanda 

What were the issues that we came up against and what would we do differently? 

00:12:11 Amanda 

And I think that's really important because nothing ever goes perfectly. 

00:12:15 Amanda 

The other thing that the case studies do is that it shows what can be done across different health settings. 

00:12:20 Amanda 

So they don't just focus on nutrition or some safety. 

00:12:25 Amanda 

There are some case studies that talk about a whole school approach where they had a lot of 

00:12:30 Amanda 

health and well-being topics all embedded into sort of 1 sort of core idea, or it could be that they focused on these individual smaller programs. 

00:12:42 Amanda 

It also shows, I think, other schools where they can leverage and where they can get funding from and the agencies that they can work with because 

00:12:52 Amanda 

as we mentioned before, you don't know what you don't know. 

00:12:55 Amanda 

So to open that book and to see that you weren't even aware of these agencies existing and that they will come and work with the school and they'll work with you and they can help you to support what you're already doing in the classroom is amazing. 

00:13:10 Amanda 

And having never taught in a classroom, I can only begin to imagine how valuable something like this would be for me. 

00:13:17 Amanda 

to know where do I even start? 

00:13:19 Amanda 

So read all the case studies and think, okay, these are the opportunities open to me and then go to your action plan and start to sort of fill that out. 

00:13:27 Amanda 

So we hope to continue to publish further case studies on the website as well. 

00:13:33 Amanda 

So it's a moving beast. 

00:13:35 Amanda 

You know, hopefully it's not another 10 or 11 years before another one of the books comes out. 

00:13:39 Amanda 

But Sue and I will not be writing that one. 

00:13:41 Amanda 

Sue will well until he be retired. 

00:13:44 Amanda 

But I think 

00:13:45 Amanda 

I think what the book should be showing and helping with is about how you can adapt initiatives to suit the specific needs of your own school because there's so many examples in it. 

00:13:57 Hugh 

Yeah, that's there are. 

00:13:59 Hugh 

And what I liked is that they show the process that schools have gone through to process of change and there's good learning outcomes in terms of that journey as well. 

00:14:11 Hugh 

So it helps with motivation and it helps even with ideas. 

00:14:15 Hugh 

Some of these ideas start as really small things, but then they grow and they continue to develop. 

00:14:20 Hugh 

And I think just on that too, it's important for people listening to just not be afraid to have a go and try something, but do it in an informed way and connect with people around you as well. 

00:14:35 Hugh 

So that's good, great tips there. 

00:14:38 Amanda 

Hugh, can I also just say the other thing about the WA schools? 

00:14:42 Amanda 

And I mean, 

00:14:44 Amanda 

I have no doubt that any of the people that are referenced in this book would be open to being contacted from other states and territories, because why not be proud of what you've done? 

00:14:53 Amanda 

And, you know, we had all of the case study schools come to the launch. 

00:14:56 Amanda 

We held the launch in the Department of Education. 

00:14:59 Amanda 

And you could just see how proud they were to be able to tell everybody what they were doing at their school and to get phone calls from schools, you know, in WA to say, I read the case study, 

00:15:13 Amanda 

could I come and just have a chat with you? 

00:15:15 Amanda 

Because while I've read the case study, I'm sure that there's more that you could tell because squeezing that into, you know, 2 pages with photos sort of thing or 4 pages with photos. 

00:15:22 Amanda 

So I think that's an opportunity too. 

00:15:24 Amanda 

The names of the schools are there, the people that were the instigator of the project or the program are there so people can reach out to them. 

00:15:32 Amanda 

And I think that's really important as well. 

00:15:35 Hugh 

Yeah, very important that I guess we can then use these case studies as a, like a platform for further thought, further discussion. 

00:15:43 Hugh 

further investigation. 

00:15:44 Hugh 

And as you've indicated, they're a good opportunity to connect with those schools and connect with others as well. 

00:15:51 Hugh 

So that's wonderful. 

00:15:55 Hugh 

Both of you have obviously invested plenty of time and effort into this particular project. 

00:16:00 Hugh 

Have you enjoyed, I know you've obviously enjoyed working on this book. 

00:16:03 Hugh 

I can sense it from the conversation today, but what have you enjoyed about working on this particular book? 

00:16:12 Amanda 

We've laughed a lot, actually, Sue and I. 

00:16:14 Amanda 

And Sue and I knew each other before we started working on this book together through WAPSA and through both of our association with Food Corps Nutrition Services. 

00:16:26 Amanda 

But I think it was a labour of love. 

00:16:28 Amanda 

It was really hard work. 

00:16:30 Amanda 

And I've got to say that Sue did the lion's share of working with the schools specifically on a one-on-one basis, which is very labour intensive. 

00:16:40 Amanda 

But 

00:16:41 Amanda 

I look, I'm just so pleased that WAPSA as an organisation has a resource out there that will, I think, stand the test of time. 

00:16:51 Amanda 

It's a lasting legacy for WAPSA that, you know, we exist in WA and we do things like this that can be used by schools, but also by educators. 

00:16:59 Amanda 

So to know that this book is used by those in the teaching curriculum at the universities because we send it out to them as well is to me, 

00:17:09 Amanda 

Yes, so important. 

00:17:11 Amanda 

And I guess that was the joy in it for me. 

00:17:14 Sue 

And for me, having that one-on-one contact with the schools, it was inspiring and rewarding to visit those schools and see some of the fabulous, innovative work being done by these passionate educators. 

00:17:30 Sue 

These are the schools that are walking the talk to some small or greater degree. 

00:17:37 Sue 

If the book increases the knowledge and understanding of even a few educators about what is a health promoting school and it encourages them to try some different strategies or projects, then for me, I think the project has been successful. 

00:17:54 Sue 

And again, I like Amanda's lasting legacy as well. 

00:18:00 Amanda 

My lasting legacy or what's this? 

00:18:02 Amanda 

I'm shaking over. 

00:18:04 Hugh 

Bye. 

00:18:06 Hugh 

yeah, thank you for your time working on this. 

00:18:08 Hugh 

It's a great resource. 

00:18:10 Hugh 

Are there any other initiatives that you're currently working on? 

00:18:13 Hugh 

Is there anything else that's in the pipeline or potentially future things you're working on? 

00:18:20 Amanda 

So I'm still, both Sue and I are both still involved with WAPSA. 

00:18:23 Amanda 

I'm still on the executive, oh sorry, on the committee. 

00:18:26 Amanda 

I sit down from an executive role. 

00:18:30 Amanda 

At the moment, we are heavily promoting Health Wave's Healthy Schools grants. 

00:18:34 Amanda 

So this is probably a nice opportunity to also thank Health Wave for funding the project because without them, this project would never have happened. 

00:18:45 Amanda 

And they have been incredibly supportive of everything that WAPSA does. 

00:18:49 Amanda 

And now to also 

00:18:52 Amanda 

promote the book in conjunction with the grants that they offer schools in WA is a match made in heaven really. 

00:18:58 Amanda 

So when a school looks at this book and says, how can I do that? 

00:19:02 Amanda 

They then go to Healthway and say, could we have some additional funds to make that happen? 

00:19:05 Amanda 

It's extraordinary. 

00:19:08 Amanda 

And WAPSA generally have common 

00:19:12 Amanda 

activities planned for the year. 

00:19:13 Amanda 

So we will continue to promote health. 

00:19:16 Amanda 

We run health expos and things like that. 

00:19:18 Amanda 

So I will continue to do that. 

00:19:20 Amanda 

I'm also heavily involved with the Federation of Canteens in Schools, which is Focus, and we're holding an inaugural National School Food Summit in Hobart in May. 

00:19:32 Amanda 

It's a satellite event that is running the day before the public health conference in Hobart. 

00:19:38 Amanda 

And it's 

00:19:39 Amanda 

It's an extraordinary opportunity to pull researchers and government and other health organisations together to discuss the school food landscape and how it really needs to be a whole school environment that tackles the inequity and the access of food in schools. 

00:19:56 Amanda 

So that's a really exciting thing for me. 

00:19:59 Sue 

And I'm supposedly retired, but I continue to advocate for health promoting schools and help schools to keep up to date with resources, as well as help them to apply for grants. 

00:20:13 Sue 

I talk to parents and grandparents about how important health is in schools, and you might have guessed I talk to anybody who'll listen, because I'm still very passionate about it. 

00:20:25 Hugh 

It's so great to hear. 

00:20:27 Hugh 

Sue and Amanda, 

00:20:29 Hugh 

Thank you so much for the insights you've shared today. 

00:20:36 Hugh 

Are there any final comments or words of wisdom that you'd like to leave with our audience? 

00:20:45 Amanda 

Thank you so much for having both Sue and I on, Sue. 

00:20:49 Amanda 

It's an extraordinary opportunity, I think, for WAAPSA and for us personally to be able to share, I think, what is an extraordinary resource. 

00:20:59 Amanda 

I think understanding that a project like this can't be done in the silo, and we worked with so many people and, the agencies that we all work with and work for. 

00:21:08 Amanda 

And I think that, the old catch cry about it, taking a village is incredibly true. 

00:21:15 Amanda 

And it takes a village to create a really healthy, supportive environment in schools. 

00:21:21 Amanda 

So we hope we're contributing to that in some way. 

00:21:25 Sue 

And my last. 

00:21:26 Sue 

My comment is that a member of ACHPA about 30 years ago once said to me that health education is the only curriculum area is that potentially either now or in the future could be a matter of life and death. 

00:21:46 Sue 

So it is a really important area to be involved in. 

00:21:54 Amanda 

Well said. 

00:21:59 Hugh 

Great, great comments to finish off with. 

00:22:01 Hugh 

Fantastic. 

00:22:02 Hugh 

Thank you so much for your time today. 

00:22:04 Hugh 

I really appreciate it. 

00:22:06 Hugh 

Thanks for sharing the advice with our listeners. 

00:22:10 Hugh 

Very much appreciated, Sue and Amanda. 

00:22:11 Hugh 

So thank you so much. 

00:22:13 Hugh 

A special thanks to our listeners also. 

00:22:17 Hugh 

Hope you gained some good insights from the conversation today. 

00:22:22 Hugh 

I finish by encouraging you to be strong advocates for health in your own schools. 

00:22:27 Hugh 

Never underestimate your capacity as agents of change and the importance of the work you do and the potential impact of that work on students in the broader community. 

00:22:37 Hugh 

So keep health at the fore focus, the front of your priority in your schools, and don't be afraid to try new initiatives and have a good look through the book. 

00:22:51 Hugh 

There's lots of great advice and tips in there. 

00:22:54 Hugh 

Thank you very much for your time today, and thanks for joining us.