Haverhill School Healthy Lifestyle Lessons Success
Children at Coupals Primary School in Haverhill have benefitted from a free five week healthy lifestyle programme which could soon be rolled out across schools in St Edmundsbury.As part of a pilot programme, Abbeycroft Leisure’s Sports Development Team visited the school in Chalkstone Way over five weeks to help primary school children to understand more about healthy eating, exercise, and sport.
Each week, for five weeks, the children were given a 20 minute lesson followed by a 40 minute exercise session and covered topics including fruit and vegetables, healthy lunchboxes, leadership and role models in sport and fitting exercise into the day. All the children kept a food diary with their parents and were encouraged to think about what they eat at home with their families. They also designed posters to promote a healthy lifestyle.
The pilot was such a success that it will now be rolled out across schools in St Edmundsbury in the next year.
Teacher Sarah Pector, from Coupals Primary School, said: “I have been so pleased with all the sessions and especially with the coaches Matt and Chris. Both of them were very dynamic, interacted well with the children and obviously are passionate about what they do, which I think is vital for the children to see. “The children really enjoyed all the sessions and it was a wonderful opportunity to be part of this great and vital project
Michelle Curran, Sports Development Officer, said: “All the children seemed to really enjoy the lessons we had prepared and it fitted in with the curriculum. It is our intention to roll out the programme across St Edmundsbury and our ambition to offer it to all schools in the county. We tried to involve the whole family in the project by giving the children a food diary to fill in at home and to encourage them to talk to their parents about the food they eat together as a family. Hopefully the parents learnt something too.”Children at Coupals Primary School in Haverhill have benefitted from a free five week healthy lifestyle programme which could soon be rolled out across schools in St Edmundsbury.