How to make school food healthy and great again

Inspired ages 6–12 vs. kids left with screens: the social impact we choose Middle childhood (6–12) is when kids shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” from copycat play to real teamwork, and from impulse to intention. What fills the after‑school hours—hands-on projects, sport, service, and mentorship vs. passive scrolling and autoplay—shapes not just individual futures but community health, safety, and prosperity. Two pathways, two trajectories Inspired kids (6–12) Join teams, clubs, and maker projects; practice persistence, feedback, and fair play. Build the “executive function” muscles: focus, planning, task-switching, and self-control. Expand identity and aspirations through real-world exposure to trades, arts, science, and service. Sleep better, move more, and form stronger peer and adult bonds. Kids left with screens Default to solitary, passive consumption that displaces homework, sleep, and movement. Fewer reps at conflict resolution, collaboration, and in-person cues. Greater risk of attention fragmentation, late bedtimes, and mood dips—especially with unfiltered feeds or late-night gaming. Screens aren’t the enemy; displacement is. Creation, co-play, and guided digital use can amplify learning. Problems grow when passive, solo, high-volume screen time takes over the 3–7 pm window.

Exciting news from Action for Healthy Kids and GENYOUth! 🚀 Action for Healthy Kids and GENYOUth are joining forces to create the nation’s largest in-school health and wellness alliance. Together, we’ll reach over 100,000 schools and bring more resources, programs, and support to students, families, and school communities across the country.     This partnership is about scaling what works. We’re combining GENYOUth’s youth-led innovation with Action for Healthy Kids’ deep experience in family engagement, district partnerships, and systems-level change to help more kids show up to school healthy, supported, and ready to learn.    #WholeChildHealth #StudentWellbeing #HealthyKids #ActionForHealthyKids #GENYOUth 

Teachers, imagine this… You’re half way through a lesson, behaviour is dipping, kids are fidgeting, some of the SEND pupils are spinning on the floor. (this probably happens everyday) You need a reset and so do the children but getting outside takes too long and distracts other classes… Instead of searching YouTube (and battling ads, distractions or random content)… You press play on a video that’s actually made for schools, in the right age group, and fits into the curriculum theme you’re teaching. The whole class joins in. They move. They laugh. They reset. Even your SEND and high-energy children are engaged and successful. That’s exactly why we built A-life Online. We’ve spent 21+ years running interactive health, fitness and wellbeing workshops in schools, and we took everything that works in real classrooms and turned it into an on-demand platform. No planning. No prep. Just press play. Use it for: • Brain breaks between lessons • PE & Sport Premium (only 1–2% of the budget) • PSHE, mental health and regulation • Whole class or small group interventions • Indoor or outdoor sessions • 2-minute energisers or 20-minute follow-alongs We kept the cost low so every school and every child can access it. And when a school signs up, all families at home get FREE access too (amazing for home-school links ) This is what schools keep telling us they need: Something simple. Something fun. Something that actually works. Free trial here: https://lnkd.in/e99JaH2B If you’re a teacher, PE lead, SENCO or SLT… this could genuinely change every classroom and child at your school everyday. “A-life Online is really useful for teachers, in between classes, brain breaks, etc. They've been using it a lot, the children have been really engaged with it.” Headteacher Our lady Queen Of Heaven Twinkl Educational Publishing Mark Wilson Jigsaw Education Group 2Simple Christopher Chalk

Concussion in Children: Why Schools Must Take Return-to-Learn Seriously Every day, children walk into schools full of energy, play, and learning. But what happens when a simple fall in the playground or a sports injury results in a concussion? Too often, we focus only on the physical recovery, when in reality, the classroom is where the hidden impact shows up most. Some facts: An estimated 1 in 5 children with concussion experience symptoms lasting more than 4 weeks. Over 90% return to school within 10 days, but not all return ready to learn. Symptoms like headaches, memory issues, light/sound sensitivity, and emotional changes can directly affect classroom performance. Students with pre-existing learning or emotional challenges are at higher risk for prolonged recovery if not supported properly. That’s why Return-to-Learn (RTL) protocols are as important as return-to-play. What this means for educators and parents: Complete isolation is outdated. Evidence now shows that prolonged rest may delay recovery. Students need a step-wise plan: starting with light activities → partial school → full academics. Temporary supports like reduced workload, screen breaks, flexible testing, and counseling check-ins can make all the difference. Most importantly: consistent communication between teachers, school health staff, physicians, and parents prevents confusion and stress for the child. At BICPHS, we are committed to embedding these evidence-based SOPs into schools because a safe return to learning is just as critical as a safe return to sports. Now Imagine the ripple effect: when a child recovers not only physically, but also emotionally and academically #ConcussionAwareness #EducationLeadership #SchoolHealth #HealthcareLeadership #PreventiveHealth #ChildHealth #HealthPolicy #EducationPolicy #BusinessForGood #ImpactLeadership

Our entire ecosystem 🌏 is unintentionally setting up our youth to lose focus, faith, purpose—and perhaps, even identity. Yet, the weight of shaping the next generation still falls almost entirely on educators, even though school represents only 29.4% of where young people spend their time! According to recent reports https://lnkd.in/es3q7Cnv , teacher burnout is soaring. School leaders are responding with boundaries, mental health days, and small celebrations—but these are band-aids on a broken system. 🤔 Do these efforts create scalable, verifiable improvements in youth wellbeing? In other words, have enhancements within school systems actually made our youth happier, healthier, and more confident? The data suggests otherwise. It’s not just about teachers being underpaid, under-recognized, or overburdened. ⚖️ The deeper issue is imbalance. Until leaders in tech, AI, media, gaming, and beyond share accountability, responsibility, and even pay parity with leaders in education and parents, there won’t be impact worth being proud of. 🎯 Every environment where a child spends time must become an equitable partner in raising them, not just schools. 🛑 We should ask ourselves: 🔑 What’s our success rate in helping adults with lifelong baggage versus shaping young minds with strong life skills from the start? ✅ Because the truth is simple: adults need help first before they can help a child. 😀 Raising educated, well-rounded youth isn’t the job of teachers alone...it’s a collective responsibility. Parents, communities, social media, gaming, employers and every part of a child’s ecosystem must step up. There are no “Ors”; it’s all “Ands.” ➡️ Until we distribute this responsibility equitably, we’re failing both our kids and our educators. #EducationReform #TeacherBurnout #CollectiveResponsibility

No wonder so many children don’t want to come to school. A year 8 parent’s perspective shared with attendance Magazine……… I keep hearing — from some school leaders and even policy influencers — that “if parents simply reinforced school rules at home, behaviour problems would reduce.” Really? Let’s talk about what too many young people face every single day: • Toilets locked for most of the day — leaving children so desperate they wet themselves and stripping young people of dignity when they cannot manage their periods. • Less than 15 minutes to queue for food, eat, and then join another queue — only to find toilets without toilet tissue, soap, or even seats. • Children with SEND in crisis removed from lessons or sent into isolation because the support they need isn’t there — sometimes even moved to another school simply to be isolated. And we wonder why some pupils show poor behaviour? Often it’s not defiance — it’s frustration, anxiety, unmet needs and a system that doesn’t work for them. Yet still the narrative is: parents just need to back up school rules. This isn’t a parenting problem — it’s a system problem. We have a curriculum out of step with today’s world, behaviour systems that too often humiliate rather than help, and underfunded SEND provision that punishes vulnerability instead of supporting it. It’s time to stop passing blame and start fixing what’s broken: ✅ Treat every child with dignity — no policy should cause shame. ✅ Reform the curriculum so it engages, equips and inspires. ✅ Fund and resource SEND properly so support is there when it’s needed. ✅ Leaders and policymakers brave enough to challenge the status quo. Blaming parents is easy. Reimagining education so every child can belong, thrive and achieve — that’s the real work. 👉 If you’re a teacher, leader, parent or policymaker — what’s the first change you believe would make schools places every child wants to be?

World Mental Health Day serves as an important reminder of the ongoing work needed to support mental wellness in our communities. For college students navigating academic pressures, social transitions and personal growth, access to mental health resources and support has never been more critical.   As members of the College Student Mental Wellness Advocacy Coalition, we're supporting the launch of this year's Thriving College Student Index, which goes live today. This year, by agreeing to share data with the CLASS Foundation's Student Living Monitor, we will have solicited responses from over a million students globally, providing unprecedented insights into student mental wellness worldwide.   The data gathered helps shape how we approach student support, community design, and programming. Today and every day, we remain committed to creating environments where students can thrive.

“Recess is a waste of time.” That one sentence is holding back student learning and teacher sanity. Here’s how 20 minutes of play can reset the whole day: Most schools treat recess like an afterthought. A quick break. A free-for-all on the blacktop. I’ve seen what this leads to: students come back more restless, teachers lose time managing post-recess conflict, and learning stalls. But there’s a simple fix that changes everything: Facilitated recess. When adults actively participate for instance, refereeing a game, walking and talking with students, helping settle arguments, the whole tone shifts. Kids feel seen and safe. Social skills improve. Attention bounces back. Teachers win back minutes of classroom calm that would otherwise be spent managing drama. Here’s what works: - Stagger recess by age group. - Create multiple activity options: sports, free play, and a “walk and talk” track. - Train staff to engage, not supervise. - Involve the community through grants and partnerships to improve spaces. It doesn’t take huge investment, just a mindset shift. Try this: Walk out with your students at recess. Join in or listen. Be present. You’ll see fewer problems and more smiles when the bell rings. Recess isn’t a break from learning. It’s how learning begins.

𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆, 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲 When it comes to Safety, Health, and Education (SHE), working with families isn’t about sales, it’s about authenticity and trust. These three areas are the pillars of a child’s life. They define a parent’s deepest responsibility which is to protect, to nurture, and to prepare. So when a parent makes a decision about their child’s safety, health, or education, it’s not transactional. It’s emotionaland it’s It’s sacred. That’s why real impact in these fields comes not from persuasion, but from partnership. Parents will move mountains for their child’s safety, make sacrifices for their health, and they’ll fight for their education, because that’s their child’s future. When we work in these spaces as educators, counselors, health professionals, or mentors, we’re not just offering services, we’re being invited into a family’s circle of trust. That’s something that has to be earned every single day through transparency, empathy, and care. Whether we’re helping a student navigate anxiety, a parent understand learning differences, or a community prioritize mental health, the foundation is the same: trust before teaching. Children and families can sense authenticity. They know when someone sees them as a number versus a person. The impact begins when we stop trying to convince and start trying to connect. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 To honor SHE, we have to do more than provide , we have to protect. That means: • Safety first: Create environments where children feel seen, heard, and safe enough to be themselves. • Health matters: Mental and emotional wellness are not extras; they’re essentials. • Education with empathy: Individualized learning means valuing how each child learns, not how fast they can keep up. When we lead with humanity, families respond with trust and that’s where real transformation begins. In a world that often treats people like numbers, let’s remember that Safety, Health, and Education aren’t industries, they are sacred promised and every promise starts with trust. SHE matters. Because when we protect a child’s safety, nurture their health, and personalize their education, we don’t just serve families, we strengthen the future. #SHEMatters #SafetyHealthEducation #BuildingTrust #AuthenticLeadership #EducationWithEmpathy #IndividualizedEducation