Getting Started on Your School Health, Well-Being and Equity Action Plans
National Healthy Schools Week is October 2-6, 2023. This annual event is an opportunity to start thinking about your health and well-being goals, creating a plan, and engaging your school community in Healthy School conversations.
Throughout the school year, we are available to help you plan and carry out activities that build on your school community’s strengths and address current priorities. We can partner with you to:
- Identify health and well-being goals.
- Plan whole-school and classroom-based approaches (school, classroom and student activities).
- Incorporate activities to address a range of topics that together support improved health and well-being.
- Ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are considered as part of a comprehensive approach.
- Engage your whole school community – staff, students, parents/families, and other community partners.
We can also support you to incorporate activities into your action plan for Healthy Schools Certification, if your school plans to register.
Sample Comprehensive Action Plan
Action Plan Template
Choose from these Sample Action Plan Ideas
These sample action plans can help you get started with planning well-being initiatives in your school.
Choose from the activities listed and/or engage students, staff, families and other community partners to come up with ideas to address your school’s unique needs.
Promoting Positive School Climate
When creating your action plan, include strategies that promote a positive school climate, regardless of the health topic you are focusing on.
A positive school climate is an important part of a healthy school. It exists when all members of the school community:
- feel safe, included, and accepted
- actively promote positive behaviours and interactions.
Potential strategies could include:
- promotion of healthy relationships
- encouraging positive, inclusive and respectful behaviour, and activities that develop living skills.
- adopting a strength-based approach that supports increasing student's Developmental Assets and Developmental Relationships. School staff play a key role in helping to build students developmental assets – the more assets children have, the less likely they are to engage in risky behaviours and the more likely they are to be successful.
For more information on promoting a positive school climate refer to the Ministry of Education website: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/climate.html
For support creating your action plan, contact your School Health public health nurse.
