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Developing a Healthy School Community – Part I
by Pepi Kotsalis (kotsalis_p@sd36.bc.ca)
Becoming a Healthy School Community – as outlined by ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) utilizes the Healthy School Report Card Canada tool to analyze a school’s current practices and processes. Outlined below is the experience of Queen Elizabeth Secondary as the school began its journey toward becoming a Healthy School Community.
School Profile:
Queen Elizabeth is a designated inner city school and has a student body of approximately 1400. The student body is represented by a rich mix of cultures; there are currently 69 different ethnic groups within our school - roughly 61% of our student population speaks a language other than English at home. The proportion of Aboriginal and Special Education students is also above District and Provincial norms.
One of our strengths is our caring school culture as indicated by our commitment to give back to our community. Each year the students and staff host the annual Christmas dinner for low income families in our community. This is a coordinated effort with the Surrey Food Bank and the project has just completed its 8 th year.
In April we have Roots and Rhythm, a talent night celebrating the various cultures represented in our school. All funds raised are donated to the Surrey Memorial Hospital and this year the students raised over $5500.
One of the practices that demonstrate our commitment to our students is the school lunch program operated through our school cafeteria. The program has been in effect since September 2005 and it provides a nutritious lunch on a daily basis to students from grade 8 to 12. The program was initiated through informal discussions between teachers who then created a team to solicit school, district and community support. The lunch program meets basic nutritional needs through a nutritionally sound meal.
Lastly, through a collaborative effort with the Surrey Fire Department, the Fire Fighters supply - on demand - “gap food”; nutritious snacks and juice for distribution to students in need during the school day.
As you can see, our school is very active and many staff members spend a tremendous amount of time and energy creating a caring community. Queen Elizabeth Secondary advocates for the wellbeing of students – whether they are inside or outside our school walls. The ASCD grant “Developing a Healthy School Community” was the perfect vehicle to help us co-ordinate our efforts. We applied for the grant and organized a health team.
Applying for this grant required completion of a comprehensive on-line application that included a profile of our school, its students as well as its performance data. We evaluated our school community’s approach to addressing the health and well-being of staff and students, and we documented those practices that are already positive.
The Healthy School Report Card Canada tool
The Healthy School Report Card Canada Tool is a self assessment tool and school improvement process that coordinates school, parent, and community stakeholders, to create a healthy school community. The Canadian version was written by Dr. Sandra Vamos, Assistant Professor of Health Education in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in BC. As Dr. Vamos has explained, the report card is an assessment process that is based on research and best practices. It incorporates systematic approaches to Leadership, Reflective practice, Stakeholder Engagement, Professional Development, School Improvement, School Health Promotion, and Data-Driven Decision-Making.
The Report Card is organized into 4 sections: The Organizing Section outlines the steps that need to be taken from garnering approval to the establishment of the wellness team, to developing a plan for completing the process. The Scoring Section includes the instructions for assessing your school, inputting the responses into the spreadsheet and generating the data analysis as well as preliminary recommendations. This section analyses 11 characteristics which, if present, support high-quality health programs and services. However as Dr. Vamos stresses, the Report Card DOES NOT assess the school in terms of a passing or failing grade. The results of the data analysis are colour coded and organized based on the following questions:
- To what extent does the indicator exist?
- How much health benefit will result from the change?
- How much effort is needed for improvement?
The next section is the Reporting Section and it outlines how to interpret the data and how to share it with the work groups, decision makers and the community. The last section, Using the Results, discusses how to use the analysis of the data to focus on issues that can be addressed quickly without additional resources or strategies into a school health improvement plan or into the overall school improvement plan.
The road to Developing a Healthy School Community therefore begins with the purchase of the ASCD tool and the establishment of a school health team. Dr. Vamos succinctly summarizes the steps to Developing a Healthy School Community:
- Obtain the HSRCC Action Tool
- Establish a school health team
- Review HSRCC materials
- Collect, analyze, and input data
- Analyze and interpret data results
- Develop a plan based on your healthy school prioritized recommendations
To purchase the Canadian version of the Healthy School Report Card, please email Don Truscott at: dtruscottconsult@shaw.ca
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