I stumbled across this service by chance wandering around the internet last year and thought it seemed a very interesting approach, some of which might be relevant.
Facts4Life is a multi-layered health resilience programme for primary and secondary schools
The main principals are:
- Taking ownership of health
- Exploring illness
- Developing strategies for wellbeing
The training programme and accompanying resources are currently free to all Gloucestershire schools and will roll out more widely in the future.
facts4life.org/
Find out what Facts4Life offers
For teachers:
facts4life.org/what-facts4life-offers/for-teachers/
Facts4Life in the Curriculum
Facts4Life offers a programme for children in Early Years settings through to Year 6 in the primary curriculum and across Key Stage 3 in the secondary curriculum.
Early Years Curriculum:
Our Early Years pack contains a range of themed laminated cards that link to the Early Years goals and, in particular, support children’s personal, social and emotional development, building resilience. They can be used systematically or respond to ‘in the moment’ planning. Some of the cards link to our children’s book, This is Fin and Bear, but can be used independently. The pack also includes a Healthy Me Activities and Mindful Me Activities double-sided poster. In addition a number of songs are available on the website.
Primary Curriculum:
The lesson materials that we now offer are designed to be delivered on a cycle, so that ideas introduced in Reception are developed further in Years 1/2 and so on up the school. We include assembly materials so that the key ideas of Facts4Life can be underpinned and referenced across the whole school. Many schools have introduced the materials as a 6 week unit of work for one or two hours a week. Others have developed them further into a topic based approach that crosses the curriculum or included them in an intensive health week in Term 5 or 6. We also offer additional on-line materials focusing specifically upon Mental Health, as well as a framework and materials for the delivery of Relationships and Sex Education in the primary school.
To support schools with their implementation of the mandatory provision of Relationships, RSE and Health Education (DfE Statutory Guidance Sept 2020), we have created a Delivery Overview guide that details how our resources can be used to navigate a pathway through the requirements (click on the image below).
Secondary Curriculum:
The resource covers different aspects of health resilience and includes 9 modules with additional on-line materials focusing specifically upon support for Mental Health. The modules can be delivered flexibly within an hour’s PSHE lesson or within tutor time, either across a single year or within a cyclical PSHE curriculum across KS3. Themes include chance and choice, personal responsibility and recognition of the range of normality.
In both primary and secondary schools, our two Facts4Life Challenges: The Facts4Life Activity Challenge and the Facts4Life Wellbeing Challenge, offer the opportunity for children to identify an area of their own health and/or wellbeing that they wish to focus upon, to record their actions over a 30 day period and achieve a bronze, silver or gold award depending on their success in meeting the challenge. Either can be used as a vehicle to measure the impact on children’s behaviours as well as whole school change
Benefits to Schools
Facts4Life complements key elements of the Science and PSHE curriculum, and has clear links to PE and DT when considering healthy lifestyles. The central ideas within the resource normalise the occurrence of illness and help to create a climate for mental health issues to be addressed. It can be used to promote good attendance. Teachers tell us that it helps them to get to know their pupils better through creating a climate where it’s safe to discuss their feelings.
Facts4Life promotes coping strategies to manage risk and in this way facilitates an openness about safeguarding. The programme supports schools in the OFSTED judgement on Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare through its emphasis on teaching children how to stay healthy.
Working with Community Family Workers and Family Support Workers
Our Healthy Families resources have been designed for use by CFWs and FSWs with families out of school, recognising that we have greater impact in building resilience when we are able to share our approach with the whole family. They include a suite of materials on themed activities such as encouraging good sleep and managing anxiety, as well as support for self-care and self-regulation. They are targeted at the early years age range as well as families with school aged children.
Facts4Life Training
We currently run regular training programmes for Teachers and Key Workers (including Community Family Workers & Family Support Workers) which include follow up support when requested. We also offer ‘whole school’ training on INSET Days or within twilight sessions upon request. Contact [email protected] for further information.
Training events are regularly advertised in publications such as HeadsUp and SENCOspot.
For parents and carers:
The Facts4Life Approach
Facts4Life teaching in schools responds to children’s interest in how their bodies work and what happens when they are unwell. The national curriculum in primary schools covers aspects of the various systems in the body, for example the digestive system in year 4 and the circulatory system in year 6 and develops this further in the secondary curriculum. This learning becomes exciting to children when we can make connections with their experience of their own health.
Riding the Up and Downs (of Health)
We offer resources and training to schools teaching children across the whole primary age range and across Key Stage 3 in secondary schools. We are also planning to develop materials for use with Key Stage 4. We find that all children are keen to find out about their own health experience which may include head lice, the common cold or other bacteria! This opens up a subject not traditionally discussed in schools and enables all to see that illness is quite normal. We operate along a continuum between good health and illness and often somewhere in between, but most of the time, most of us get better from illness without need for medical intervention. Children can understand the rebalancing process in the body (homeostasis) and how symptoms of illness are sometimes evidence of this e.g. fever killing a virus.
Smoothing the Path
From an understanding of the symptoms of an illness and how it’s treated, children come naturally to thinking about actions they can take to maximize their health. This might include healthy eating, physical exercise, rest and sleep. This takes away fear for young people and develops confidence in their ability to manage their health. The Facts4Life 30 Day Challenge encourages children to identify an area they wish to focus on regarding their health and to keep a record of their actions e.g. taking exercise rather than spending hours on the x-box! This more exploratory learning is a very different route to telling children what they should or shouldn’t be doing.
Physical and Mental Health
Facts4Life teaching does not separate physical health from mental health. We know that the two are closely interlinked. For example, when we are not enjoying good sleep or have a poor diet, this can affect our mental health. Likewise, we know that stress can cause symptoms of various physical illnesses. Facts4Life teaches children to understand their own needs and how to respond. This includes their emotional needs and any anxieties they may be harbouring. In the same way that it is normal to experience the ups and downs of physical illness, it is normal to feel worried, upset, angry and to learn how to manage this. We aim to create a climate in which children can confidently explore aspects of mental health in the same way that they might learn about diabetes, for example.
What do parents and teachers tell us?
We know that all families experience a range of illnesses over time. Parents have told us that the opportunity for their child to learn about something that is affecting the family can really support them. E.g the experience of dementia in a grand-parent
Teachers have said that the Facts4life curriculum enables then to get to know children better and to build effective partnerships with parents.
Parents are welcome to attend a Facts4Life training session for teachers if space allows.
For students
facts4life.org/what-facts4life-offers/for-students/
For health professionals
facts4life.org/what-facts4life-offers/for-health-professionals/
There is masses of other information on the website.
eg. facts4life.org/resources/