Birmingham nursery and primary schools awarded for efforts to lead healthier lifestyles

Pupils and teachers from 14 nursery schools and 13 primary schools in Birmingham came together for the annual Health for Life awards event held at the Town Hall. The Lord Mayor presented participants with their awards, marking a wide range of achievements in introducing and extending healthy lifestyle activities into daily school life over the last year. This year’s awards saw nursery schools recognised for the first time in the eight years since the Health for Life initiative was introduced, reflecting the programme’s recent expansion to include their participation.

The Health for Life programme, which has now reached 182 schools across the city, provides funding and support to encourage healthier lifestyles with a focus on healthy eating, growing food and physical activity in practical ways to suit each school’s priorities. The awards celebrate how teachers, pupils and families have come together to make exercise and nutrition an enjoyable and engaging part of learning.

St Gerards primary school focused on growing produce in their allotments in July which pupils were able to harvest when they returned in September. Meanwhile, pupils at Marsh Hill and Osborne nursery schools stayed active with their new balance bike loan scheme allowing students to borrow the bikes and enabling them to keep active outside as well as inside school.

Rosie Millns, Reception Class Teacher and Health for Life lead at Hillstone Primary, said: “The Health for Life programme has provided the platform for our students to explore and experience a wide variety of activities in each of the three key strands. Cooking and growing activities have now been embedded into our curriculum, allowing every student the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and experience. The funding provided has helped the school sustain these topics and will ensure future students at Hillstone are presented with the opportunity to learn about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.”

Health for Life provides its vast range of opportunities to schools through funding from Mondelez International and ongoing support from Services for Education and The Conservation Volunteers.

Dr Sandra Passmore, Senior Advisor at Services for Education, said: "All the schools here today have made significant improvements to the health and wellbeing of their pupils, and their parents. And the awards are a celebration of just how much the programme has helped them achieve over the past 15 months.”

Kelly Farrell, community affairs manager at Mondelez International, said: “We are so proud of our Health for Life schools receiving their awards for yet another year. It’s wonderful to see the commitment and energy of all the teachers, children and their families had to pursue healthier lifestyles through the various activities they embarked on. We’ve already reached over 150 nursery, primary and secondary schools throughout the city and we’re looking forward to working with Services for Education again this year to reach even more!”

For more information about the work carried out by Health for Life in schools, please visit www.servicesforeducation.co.uk/health-for-life