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Caerphilly Healthy Schools Newsletter - Spring Term 2019

Get the latest news, information, and updates about the excellent work happening in our local schools to create happy, healthy environments for our children.

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Caerphilly Healthy Schools Newsletter - Spring Term 2019

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  1. Issue 12 Spring Term 2019 Caerphilly Healthy Schools Newsletter Team Contact Details:Carin Quinn – quinnc@caerphilly.gov.ukAdam Thomas – thomaa13@caerphilly.gov.ukSue Evans – evanss18@caerphilly.gov.uk 01443 864863 @HS_Caerphilly

  2. Foreword by Richard Edmunds, Corporate Director for Education and Corporate Services I’m delighted to introduce this latest edition of the Caerphilly Healthy SchoolsNewsletter which contains all the latest news, information and updates about the excellent work going on in our local schools. I’m relatively new to my role, but in the short time that I’ve worked here in Caerphilly I’ve seen that there are many positive things taking place across the area to create happy, healthy environments for our children and I intend to lend my full support to this agenda going forward. It’s fantastic to see so many awards, celebrations and success stories emerging from our schools and this is testimony to the fantastic work that is taking place on a daily basis to promote the healthy schools agenda. The health and wellbeing of children and young people is of utmost importance to me and to the local authority. Unfortunately we are living in difficult times at present due to ongoing austerity and uncertainty about our country’s future, so it’s vitally important that we ensure that the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of children and young people remains a priority. Our challenge is to ensure that we target our resources to where they can make the biggest difference so that the Healthy Schools Team can continue to do their excellent work. We will also continue to support pupils, teachers, parents and our partners to improve the health of whole school communities. I’m really looking forward to joining you on this journey of improvement and together we can create school communities where pupils can learn important lessons in health and wellbeing that will have a positive impact on the rest of their lives. Ed

  3. Contents Page 4: National Quality Award – Pengam Primary Page 5: Congratulations to … Page 6: E-Bug Champions 2018 Page 7: NQA Celebration Event Page 8: Flu Champions 2018 Update Page 9: PSE Workshop – Autumn Term Page 10: USW Sport Module Pilot Page 11: Waunfawr Primary – Green Apple Award Page 12: Blackwood Primary – Calm Kid Sessions Page 13: Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales Page 14: Period Dignity Update Page 15: Innovate Project - boxes for the homeless Page 16: Access to the Growing Up resource Page 17: Services to support…. Page 18 : Samaritans Training – Secondary Schools Page 19: The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act Page 20-21: School Phases for Healthy Schools

  4. National Quality Award Many congratulations to Pengam Primary for achieving the prestigious Welsh Network of Healthy Schools National Quality Award in November 2018. They are the 14th school in the authority to achieve the NQA. The school was commended for delivering a range of excellent practices that support health and wellbeing throughout the school including: • A well established enrichment programme which allows pupils to attend a range of lessons including forest schools, gardening and French; • A successful nurture provision for year six pupils; • An extremely strong ‘pupil voice’ with a range of groups including Junior Road Safety Officers, School Council, Eco council and a Pupil Voice Group; • All staff contributing towards the school’s excellent work on health and wellbeing. Emma George, Lead Verifier of the NQA said: “There is no doubt that Pengam Primary School is a healthy school truly deserving the National Quality Award. The school is supportive, welcoming, nurturing and inclusive. Health and wellbeing is firmly embedded within the value system of the school.”

  5. Congratulations to … St. James Primary – Local Phase 6, November 2018 St. Martins Comprehensive – Phase 3, December 2018 Innovate Rhymney – Phase 3, January 2019 Machen Primary – Local Phase 6, January 2019 Bedwas Infants School – Local Phase 6, January 2019 If you would like us to present your plaque in a special assembly please get in touch. Pupils at Bedwas Infants receiving the Healthy School Banner Pupils from The Innovate Project Rhymney with their Phase 3 Plaque

  6. Congratulations to … Caerphilly E-Bug Champions 2018 We would like to thank all schools that attended our E-bug workshops delivered throughout 2017/18. Special thanks to Idris Davies 3 – 18 School, Islwyn High School, Lewis School, Pengam and St Cenydd Comprehensive School for hosting the workshops. We hope you all found the online E-bugs resource useful in educating students on infection prevention and control. We are delighted to announce that the schools below won the Healthy Schools School Council E-bug competition designed to allow pupils to develop their own methods to promote the spread of infection within their own particular setting. Ysgol Trelyn Hendre Infants Innovate – Rhymney Rhiw Syr Daffyd Primary

  7. NQA Celebration Event The Caerphilly Healthy Schools Team hosted a celebration event in September 2018 to showcase the four schools who achieved the prestigious National Quality Award in 2018. The event was very well attended and the Healthy Schools Team was delighted that Richard ‘Ed’ Edmunds and Paul Warren attended from CCBC as well as the deputy mayor, Julian Simmonds. John Griffiths, the managing director of Work4Health the company that carries out the National Quality Award accreditations gave a highly informative presentation about the NQA process and Mezz Bowley, Assistant Director of Public Health Wales described the link between health and education and the value of the healthy schools scheme in the wider context. The four schools that achieved the NQA; Trinity Fields Special School Resource Base, Hendre Infants School, Ysgol Ifor Bach and Cwmfelinfach Primary School were officially presented with their plaques and each school gave a short presentation on the process. All the presentations were very professional and extremely well received, however, the short video that Trinity Fields produced using the ‘This is Me’ soundtrack from ‘The Greatest Showman’ ensured that their inclusive and holistic education was evident to all. Many people who attended were moved to tears!

  8. In July 2018, the Caerphilly Healthy Schools team was asked to support the School Nursing Service to improve the uptake of the nasal spray ‘flu vaccine. It was suggested that schools with the lowest uptake in 2017 should be targeted and encouraged to identify flu champions to promote the importance of the vaccine thereby helping to protect the young, vulnerable and elderly as flu can be a very unpleasant illness with potentially serious complications including bronchitis and pneumonia. The rationale behind engaging with schools was due to the fact that young children are often the ‘shedders and spreaders’ in society despite our schools’ best efforts to instill healthy hygiene habits from a young age. In 2018/19 the vaccine was offered to all school aged children between YR and Y6. As we have come to expect in Caerphilly, our targeted schools were extremely supportive of enlisting a flu champion and early data shows that the schools have, not only improved uptake but, in a number of cases achieved percentages well above the national average! Bendigedig a diolch yn fawr, Caerffili  Flu ‘Champions’ 2018

  9. PSE Workshop for Schools Eating Disorder Workshop During the autumn term, the Healthy Schools team ran the very first PSE workshop at Lewis School Pengam. This was so well received that it will become a termly event (details below regard the spring workshop). Eighteen delegates attended from either primary or secondary schools across Caerphilly borough. Opening the day was an inspirational presentation from Lewis Boys’ School’s LGBTQ+ group. They updated us on the reasons why a group was needed, how it has developed, how they support others to tackle insecurities and the inclusive nature of the community. Pupils showcased the video they had created to promote their annual LGBTQ+ day during the summer term. We were lucky to secure additional high profile guest speakers including Gareth Thomas from WLGA who outlined food and drink provision that meets WG standards during school hours and how schools can support the rise of obesity by meeting the standards. Rhian Evans explained how schools can utilise the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child act within their setting as well as encouraging schools to sign up to the young ambassadors scheme. Finally, we were thrilled that our very own Sian Griffiths seconded from St Gwladys Primary School found time to give an update on ACE’s and how to utilise to support pupils within the school. If you would like a copy of the presentations from any of the speakers, please ask as we would be more than happy to share them with you. Spring PSE Event: Thursday 7th March, 9.30-3.00, Lewis School, Pengam If you would like to attend, please get in touch with a member of the Healthy Schools Team

  10. USW Sports Module Pilot As Healthy Schools practitioners we are extremely fortunate to be offered opportunities to work with a variety of partners and organisations connected with both health and education. Having attended a recent event at the University of South Wales, Pontypridd, we are thrilled to be piloting an exciting project with second and third year Sports Coaching and Development and Rugby Coaching students. Chris Emsley is a lecturer for the BSc Sports Coaching and Development at USW and strives to offer his undergraduates high quality, relevant placements. This academic year one of the modules has involved a Caerphilly primary school and, if successful, we hope to replicate this across other Caerphilly schools. Pupils at Fochriw Primary School completed a short wellbeing survey at the end of the summer term 2018 then during the autumn term, third year students spent a day a week at the school getting to know pupils, understanding the local context and auditing existing PE equipment. Students were split into groups and had to create a cross curricular scheme of work and pitch their ideas to a panel of judges; very much like Dragons Den! The winning idea was to be delivered by second year students in the spring term 2019. We are thrilled that the university has created such an innovative module around our Caerphilly primary schools and delighted that our pupils are benefiting from high quality PE provision. The project is an integral part of the modular undergraduate course and Chris has some very well qualified, experienced sports coaches within his student population. If you are interested in using their expertise as part of your school PE curriculum, please contact Chris directly on: chris.emsley@southwales.ac.uk to discuss your needs. We will publish the evaluation of this exciting project in a future issue.

  11. Waunfawr Primary – Green Apple Award Waunfawr Primary have become the first school in Wales to receive a prestigious ‘Green Apple Award’ for environmental best practice following the success of their ‘Back to the future in glass bottles’ campaign. The main focus of the schools eco committee throughout 2018 was to eliminate the use of single-use plastic completely from the school. With the help from Phil Williams, PlanIT Eco who delivered a whole school audit to identify plastic use within the school, staff and pupils have undertaken a number of initiatives to help reduce their plastic use and the permanent removal of items, such as disposable cutlery, cups and cling film from the school completely. Rhiannon Burgham, Eco/Healthy Schools Coordinator (Top Left) with pupils form the eco schools committee receiving the green apple award.. However, the main concern of the school was the daily use of plastic milk bottles. This led to the ‘Back to the future in glass bottles’ campaign. After much consultation with local councillors and various services, the school were finally given the go ahead to become the first school in Caerphilly Borough to trial bringing glass milk bottles back in to the school throughout the autumn term. The work that the school continues to deliver in reducing the use of single-use plastic hasn’t gone unnoticed, with them receiving the Green Apple Award as well as receiving a letter of praise form Sir David Attenborough.

  12. Blackwood Primary - Calm Kid Sessions Blackwood Primary have recently introduced Calm Kid / Mindfulness sessions to help promote reflection time during the school day as well as helping children to feel more relaxed and calm during the school day. Led by a number of pupil ‘Calm Crews’, the children undertake a variety of calming body movements, breathing techniques, mindfulness moments as well as Welsh commands all whilst listening to relaxing music that the pupils’ chose. The sessions were set up with the aim to: • Support with calmer transitions to and from lunch; • Help pupils’ with behavioural difficulties as the sudden change of the lunch hour often changes behaviour; • Support vulnerable pupils who find quick transition from one environment to another challenging or upsetting. When asked about the sessions, the children explained that after taking part they feel calm, happy and ready to enjoy lunch with their friends, helping them to remain focused on tasks after lunch. Pupils also enjoy taking part in the sessions and feel empowered by developing the sessions themselves. Head teacher, Mrs Karen Davies is extremely pleased with how well the pupils have responded to the sessions, which all reinforces the school’s continued focus on Growth Mind-set and Well being, ensuring pupils are happy, calm and resilient learners.

  13. Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales On 17th January 2019, the Welsh Government launched the Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales consultation. The event was chaired by Frank Atherton, the Chief Medical Officer and Vaughan Gething, the Assembly Minister for Health and Social Services gave an aspirational speech. It was acknowledged that there are tough challenges ahead as the causes of obesity are complicated and there is no quick fix. However the statistics are startling; Wales is one of the most overweight nations in Western Europe with over 60% of adults overweight or obese. Throughout the morning speakers emphasised that there are things we can all do to help tackle obesity, such as making healthier food choices and being more physically active but there are things to be done at a national level. This involves influencing the make-up of processed food to limit salt and sugar content, limit the promotion of unhealthy food choices, especially for children, and making sure that healthy alternatives are widely available and affordable to consumers. We know how hard our Caerphilly schools are working to support the health and wellbeing of our children so we urge everyone to complete the online questionnaire https://beta.gov.wales/healthy-weight-healthy-wales or send a written response by email or letter to HealthyWeightHealthyWales@gov.wales by Friday 12th April 2019.

  14. Period Dignity Update Period Poverty is headline news with Welsh Government highlighting the issue across Wales. In 2018, every local authority in Wales was allocated funding to alleviate the problem so members of Caerphilly Council set up a working party following a motion brought by Cllrs. Elaine Forehead and James Pritchard. The working party has been chaired by Cllr. Philippa Marsden, the cabinet member for education, and includes a secondary school head teacher, pastoral leaders, youth workers, children’s services, school nurses, secondary school pupils and healthy schools representatives. The working party has grown considerably in size since its formation and now includes a broad range of stakeholders. During the summer term 2018, all secondary head teachers across Caerphilly sampled pupil views by completing a short questionnaire to gain their views and opinions on the subject of period poverty. In the Caerphilly group, there has been a strong emphasis on sustainability, ensuring that the initiative is specific to the needs of our borough, using the grant to support as many women as possible.   Red boxes have been purchased for every educational setting across Caerphilly as well as youth centres, community centres and libraries.  In addition to the WG funding, Children’s Services have provided funding for students at Lewis Girls School and St Cenydd School to create a short film to be launched in May at the Blackwood Miners Institute Film Festival. Youth Services and Healthy Schools will be working to create an educational resource to accompany the film and to roll out across the borough. Watch this space for further updates!

  15. Boxes for the HomelessThe Innovate Youth Project Staff at Rhymney’s Innovate Youth Project used a novel approach to educating young learners by planning a worthwhile topic encompassing valuable life skills. Students wanted to help the homeless during the Christmas period so the staff really took this idea to a new level! The pupils brought in old and unwanted clothes and helped to sort them ready for collection by Cash4Clothes. Students worked out approximately how much the clothes would be worth and calculated how many boxes they could fill. On receipt of the cash, students went shopping for goods ensuring that they spent the money wisely by comparing the prices of various retailers. News of this work rapidly spread across Rhymney and a local pensioner began collecting items on behalf of the young people. Similarly, staff in Caerphilly’s Education Department donated items for the appeal having been touched by the commitment and enthusiasm of these vulnerable youngsters. On hearing what the pupils were doing, a manager at Superdrug donated a box of toothbrushes and other items to the cause which greatly boosted the quantity of boxes to be filled. Students covered the covered the shoeboxes in festive paper and worked together to devise a way to pack them correctly and efficiently. Finally the students visited the centre in Merthyr and learned first hand how their work would help the homeless. The Communications department at Caerphilly Council was so impressed by the compassion shown by these vulnerable learners that they ran an article showing how a small group worked to donate 53 boxes to the homeless.

  16. Accessing the Tyfu I Fyny/Growing Up Resource To help support the delivery of Sex and Relationships Education, the Tyfu i Fyny/Growing Up resource has now been installed on Hwb for ease of access to all schools. To access the resource you will need login details for Hwb. After logging on, type – ‘Growing Up’ in the search box on the English side and it will appear. If you are searching for the Welsh resource you will need to change the Hwb language to Cymraeg and type ‘Tyfu i Fyny’ in the search box and it will appear on the screen. When the resource is open you can change the language by clicking on the speech symbol on the top left side of the screen. https://hwb.gov.wales/ • The resource has been fully reviewed and updated and includes the following: • Electronic resources that have been programmed to HTML5; • A new section on the period monthly cycle; • An updated teacher handbook with more information and extended literacy tasks, as well as new scripts being added for teachers to help explain some topics e.g. periods, IVF, surrogacy, different families etc; • Many new Welsh language documents have been included to help promote the literacy skills of pupils. • All schools will benefit from these resources. If you think your school needs further support delivering SRE , please get in touch with the healthy schools team.

  17. Services to support: ‘Speak out, Stay safe’ programme: • The Speak out Stay safe programme gives a generation of children the knowledge and understanding they need to stay safe from abuse and neglect. • Speak out Stay safe is offered at no cost to schools and teaches children aged 5-11 about safeguarding in a lively, interactive and memorable way. • The child-friendly, interactive assemblies and workshops help children: • understand abuse in all its forms and recognise the signs; • know how to protect themselves. • Pupils are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or to Childline. www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout Photography taken by Tom Hull. The Spectrum Project is an all Wales programme funded by the Welsh Government and delivered by experienced teachers in primary and secondary schools. The free, bilingual, workshops are closely linked to the curriculum and promote the importance of healthy relationships whilst raising the awareness of children, young people and adults about the issues of domestic abuse, sexual violence and violence against women. The engaging activities are designed to be thought provoking and promote peer discussion but are not intended to be so emotive as to cause distress. Spectrum@hafancymru.co.uk / 01267 225563

  18. Samiratans Cymru – Free Training for Secondary Schools DEAL: DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL AWARENESS AND LISTENING FREE SECONDAY SCHOOL TRAINING AND RESOURCE WHEN Tuesday 25th June 13:30—15:30 WHERE Civic Centre, Pontypool Torfaen County Borough Council, NP4 6YB DEAL is a free, bilingual web-based teaching resource containing lesson plans, audio-visual resources, teaching notes and staff training materials that align with the PSE Framework and the Health and Wellbeing AoLE. It is aimed at students aged 14 and over. DEAL is designed to: • Raise awareness of emotional health; • Develop coping strategies; • Develop communication skills; • Develop supportive and help seeking behaviour To book a place, contact your local Healthy Schools Officer or emmataylor@monmouthshire.gov.uk (Places are limited)

  19. The Well being of Future Generations Act 2015 The Well-being of Future Generations Act is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. As a result of the Act, a total of 44 Public Bodies across Wales, Caerphilly CBC included, must think more about the long term, work better with local people and communities and each other, look to prevent problems and take a more joined up approach. To make sure everyone is working towards the same vision, the act puts in place seven well-being goals. We have mapped the seven well-being goals against ESDGC (Education for Sustainable Development & Global Citizenship), the LNF and other award schemes and initiatives to give schools an idea of what they could include in their curriculum and extra curricular activities to help address the seven well-being goals. To access the bilingual resource please visit the Teachers Resources page of the Sustainable Caerphilly Website. http://your.caerphilly.gov.uk/sustainablecaerphilly/schools-and-esdgc/teacher-resources

  20. School Phases for Healthy Schools Schools who have achieved the Healthy Schools National Quality Award: • Markham Primary (2012) • Bedwas High (2012) • Hendredenny Park Primary (2014) • St Gwladys Primary (2014) • Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili (2015) • Bedwas Juniors (2015) • Ty Isaf Infants (2016) • Cwmaber Infants (2017) • Cwrt Rawlin Primary (2017) • Trinity Fields School and Resource Centre (2018) • Cwmfelinfach Primary (2018) • Hendre Infants (2018) • Ysgol Ifor Bach (2018) • Pengam Primary (2018) • Schools who have achieved the Healthy Schools Local Phase 6 Award: • St Helens Roman Catholic School (2014) • Bryn Awel Primary (2014) • Pentwynmawr Primary (2014) • Llanfabon Infants (2016) • Penllwyn Primary (2016) • Cwm Glas Infants (2017) • Ysgol Gymraeg Trelyn (2017) • Tyn Y Wern Primary (2017) • Llancaeach Junior School (2018) • Waunfawr Primary School (2018) • St James Primary (2018) • Machen Primary (2019) • Bedwas Infants (2019)

  21. School Phases for Healthy Schools

  22. Sharing Good Practice Do you have something you would like to be included in the next edition of our Healthy Schools Newsletter? Achievements, forthcoming and successful events are all welcome. Would you like to see your school in the ‘Sharing Good Practice’ section? Promoting your achievements will help us improve the health and wellbeing of all schools in the Caerphilly County Borough. . Please send any articles and photos by Thursday 18th April 2019 for inclusion in the Summer 2019 edition. If you have any comments regarding the above information please contact the Healthy Schools Team on: (01443) 864863 or email : Carin Quinn: quinnc@caerphilly.gov.uk Adam Thomas: thomaa13@caerphilly.gov.uk Sue Evans: evanss18@caerphilly.gov.uk

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