Policy

The North Vancouver School Board recognizes schools play a role, as part of a larger community, to promote health for its students. The Board recognizes an important connection between health and the many benefits to students, including a student’s ability to learn, grow, and maintain good health. North Vancouver schools promote health by striving to provide:

• healthy physical and social environments
• effective teaching and learning to achieve the knowledge and skills needed to be healthy
• strong partnerships with the health sector and other community services that contribute to wellness.

Through attention to each of these areas the Board acknowledges the unique position that schools play in being able to directly influence students’ health. 

Components of a Health Promoting School

A health-promoting school provides guidance for the integration of the following:

• health curriculum and instruction
• support services for students and their families
• a safe and healthy physical environment within the school and community
• social support from families, peers, school staff, the larger community and public policy.

Health promotion needs to be flexible and practical and solutions should reflect the needs, issues and concerns of individual students, families and schools. As a result, plans for health promotion need to be developed, or maintained, that are unique to each setting. In order to assist schools in creating unique and comprehensive solutions, the following domains have been identified as key areas to be addressed:

1. Teaching and Learning. Within this domain schools ensure that curricular areas, as prescribed through Ministry of Education learning outcomes, are being followed and, where possible, partnerships that inform and enhance instruction in fitness and health are developed and maintained.
2. The school environment, culture and organization. Within this domain health-promoting schools will look at the entire environment of the school, encompassing the physical and social environments to ensure that a safe and healthy school environment exists and includes access to: healthy foods and beverages, nutrition services, health services, counselling and psychological services, and health promotion for staff and students.  
3. Partnerships, supports, and services. Within this domain schools will seek to ensure that supports and services within a school help students to be physically and emotionally healthy. Further partnerships beyond the school community that contribute to health promotion in the school setting will continue to be developed and maintained.

Food and Beverages Sold in Schools

Specific to the second domain of school environment, culture and organization, North Vancouver Schools will use the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in Schools in BC (2007) to determine which foods and beverages are available to students and under what circumstances.

It should be noted that the Guidelines apply to foods and beverages sold to students in all school locations, including vending machines, school stores and cafeterias, school fundraisers and special occasions, and events sponsored by the Parent Advisory Council.

Resources

BC School Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools (Revised September 2007)
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/health/guidelines_sales07.pdf

Ministry of Education Healthy Schools Publications
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/health/health_publications.htm