Anti-bullying and childhood obesity initiatives

Thousands more children to benefit from anti-bullying app

£4.4 million government fund backs projects including tootoot app to let children use screenshots of online abuse to report bullying.

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Childhood obesity: a plan for action

The government’s plan for action to significantly reduce childhood obesity by supporting healthier choices was published on 18 August 2016.

Under the plan there will be:

A requirement for all primary schools to provide at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day for pupils through, for example, active breaktimes, PE lessons, extra-curricular clubs and active lessons
An interactive online tool produced to help schools plan the daily half hour of physical activity
The introduction of a voluntary ‘healthy schools rating scheme’. The rating criteria will be decided after consultation with schools and experts and will form part of Ofsted inspections being introduced from September 2017
Further guidance from Public Health England for primary schools to help them to understand which interventions work
An annual competition to recognise the schools running the best healthy lifestyle projects

Other initiatives announced in the childhood obesity strategy include:

An update to the school food standards to reflect new dietary recommendations, and a campaign to get all academies to sign up to the standards
Revised menus and physical activity guidelines for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
New advice for schools to be published for 2017/18 on how to work with school nurses and health professionals to help pupils develop healthier lifestyles
Training for school nurses on influencing behaviour change and initiating difficult conversations about health and wellbeing
Access to a co-ordinated offer of high quality sport and physical activity programmes for every primary school from September 2017
Targets to increase the number of children walking to school, and continuing support for the bikeability cycle training scheme for children
A thematic review, to be conducted by Ofsted in 2017, on obesity, healthy eating and physical activity in schools, to find examples of good practice and recommendations on what more schools can do

Heads Up 10th October 2016