Why?
‘Educating for Health: Creating Health Promoting Schools’ was funded by All Saints Educational Trust (ASET). Schools are central in supporting children and young people’s health and wellbeing and supporting schools to create health-promoting environments is timelier than ever with ever-increasing health inequalities.
How?
The project consisted of recruiting secondary schools in the South West in areas of high economic deprivation and assessing the feasibility and acceptability of a set of health promoting (HP) processes and that of a newly developed questionnaire capturing adolescent diet, physical activity, mental wellbeing behaviours and the school culture. An evaluation of the HP processes was also conducted.
The research team worked with schools to review the findings of the health-promoting audit, proposed evidenced informed ways of affecting the issues and ways to implement activities and environmental changes to address barriers to health and wellbeing. Adolescent nutrition was the area that schools and students highlighted as an area needing the most attention.
What next?
The project finished in 2024. A legacy of the research has been the setting up of a Young Person’s Advisory Group (YPAG), please see photo below, who have acted as advisors on this project and other projects that are relevant to young people.
Publications
- C.A. Forbes, A.J. Williams, K. Wyatt, Feasibility study of the implementation of health promoting processes in a secondary school and ways to capture its impact on adolescent lifestyle choices, Public Health in Practice, Volume 9, 2025 .
- McHugh C, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. Enablers and barriers English secondary schools face in promoting healthy diet and physical activity behaviours. Health Promot Int. 2022;37(2).
- McHugh CA, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. Implementing a set of health promoting processes in English secondary schools: A comparative case study. Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2021;2.
- McHugh C, Hurst A, Bethel A, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. The impact of the World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools framework approach on diet and physical activity behaviours of adolescents in secondary schools: a systematic review. Public Health. 2020;182:116-24.
- McHugh CA, Anderson L, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. Influences on diet and physical activity choices of 11–13-year-olds in a school setting. Health Education Journal. 2019;78(5):545-56.