We are delighted to announce the next phase in the development of the Facts4Life health resilience programme.
New resources for teaching children at Key Stage 1 are ready for launch so that 4 to 7 year olds in Gloucestershire schools will now be able to learn about health resilience and explore strategies for well-being. In addition, Key Stage 2 materials have been revised with further opportunities to address mental health issues. We know from the Facts4Life pilot just how interested young people are in their own health and in ‘body centred’ learning.
The launch follows a very successful evaluation of the impact of teaching Facts4Life ideas in primary schools by the University of the West of England and has been commissioned by the NHS (Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group) and Public Health in Gloucestershire. The evaluation shows changing attitudes over a short period of time following exposure to Facts4Life teaching as well as indications of increasing responsibility and changing behaviour.
Free training dates have been publicised to all primary schools in the county and we ask teachers to book early to reserve their place. Training and resources are free to schools.
The delivery of Facts4life will help schools to demonstrate how they are improving pupils’ knowledge of how to keep themselves healthy (Ofsted judgement on Personal Development and Welfare). It complements key elements of the Science and PSHE curriculum and supports the delivery of the GHLL PinK curriculum. It helps teachers to gain confidence in creating the climate in which both physical and mental health can be openly addressed, helping schools to prioritise interventions.
Here are some comments from year 5 students involved in the UWE evaluation:
“When we did the healthy body thing, when we had to label everything in our body, it made me think twice about sugar levels because you are not going to have a very healthy body if you eat too much junk [or] too much sugar.”
“Well, I thought that science was just making things … and finding out something. I didn’t know that it could be fun the same time as serious. So it kind of made me more confident with science.”
“Well I never knew there was such thing as mental illness.”