Monfredo: Healthy Students Equals Better Learners…New Concept- Health Ambassadors in High Schools
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Several years ago our state signed a law stating that all school systems needed to have a Wellness Policy Council. Worcester has one headed by our Director of School Nurses, Dr. Debra McGovern. The council meets every two months and brings to the table health coordinators from the city of Worcester, the Worcester Public Schools and other interested citizens from within the community. As a member of the committee I support their mission and realize more has to be done.
The Mission of the Worcester Public Schools Wellness Policy is to enable students to become independent and self-directed learners, responsible for meeting their own health and nutritional needs as developmentally appropriate. It is the goal of the Wellness Policy to promote the students physical, emotional and social well being through the coordinated efforts of all departments and services offered in the Worcester Public Schools. The Wellness policy is available on the WPS website and is shared with community partners.
Agenda items from obesity and nutrition to promoting physical activity and nursing services available are discussed at these meetings. The main focus is wellness in our schools and how we can advocate for our students. Thus, one of the agenda items for the past several years has been the establishment of a “Health Ambassador program.” This item was suggested by Dr. Beverly Nazarian, UMass consultant for the Worcester Public Schools, and me as a way of promoting healthy living within our schools.
- The idea is to promote healthy activities for students, parents, families and staff in their schools
- Advocate for best practices for healthy nutrition and physical activity
- Highlight best practices within their schools
- Provide resources to students, parents and staff – opportunities for exercise and recreational activities in our community, sources for locally grown vegetables, and recipes for healthy snacks and meals
- Identify healthy options for fund-raising that provide a consistent message to children and families regarding nutrition, dental health and exercise
- Submit ideas and activities to the WPS Wellness web page, and school and principal newsletter
- Educate to school community regarding the WPS Wellness Policy and state mandates for nutrition.
The idea is to have schools come up with a health ambassador team to consider what they can do at their respective schools. Volunteer team ambassador teams could be physical education teachers, nurses, community members or parents.
Hopefully, as we move forward starting with our secondary schools we will be able to have health ambassadors in place. One high school, South High, does have a Health Ambassador for Physical Education teacher Jen McNerney stepped up and is working on such a program. She has already conducted a Wellness Inventory for students and staff that addresses programs, practices, resources, equipment, services and need in the school, community and the WPS district. She has established a badminton/ping pong club and has students involved in reviewing what they can do as a school to promote wellness.
In addition, she is considering other ideas such as providing a “Work’s Out Workout” for teachers for 20 minutes after school and a “Wake Up Warm Workout” led by teacher volunteers before school. Another idea would be for the school to join the Wellness Coalition of America” that provides monthly newsletters and very helpful website resources for staff. These are just a few ideas from one school and if we can have ambassadors in our other schools they can all share ideas with one another.
One idea that I’d like all the schools coming aboard to consider is a theme on “thoughtful acts of kindness.” I believe that kindness is a key ingredient that helps children feel good about themselves and it affects good health. Having a positive outlook enables greater attention spans and more creative thinking to produce better results at school.
Acts of kindness certainly would reduce bullying and lead to more discussions on this subject. When kindness and compassion are taught, it fosters the positive behavior that is expected. Let’s remember that when we do something nice for someone else we feel good.Studies show that people experience a “helper’s high” when they do a good deed. It’s time that we teach our children to “pay it forward” with acts of kindness. A great starting place could be with the new Wellness Ambassadors in our high schools.
Hopefully, this year we can move forward with this concept.
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