In last week’s blog, Tagtiv8 tackled the popular New Year resolutions of beginning a healthier lifestyle. We discussed – and gave tips – about how you could lead a healthier lifestyle at home.
In this week’s blog, we will be discussing how to lead a healthier lifestyle at school and within school hours.
Healthier Lifestyle At School
It goes without saying, your child’s education is beyond important. The reality is, it shapes the rest of their life.
Obviously, your child’s happiness is key, but studies show that diet and exercise are closely linked to happiness.
From a nutritional point of view, the fuel that you put into your body WILL affect your mood.
For example, if you give your child a chocolate bar, they will experience a sugar high, which may make them run around for a short while but it is closely followed by a sudden drop in energy. This is why we suggest not to feed your child sugary cereal before school. Instead, feed them something that releases energy slowly like porridge or wholemeal toast. These sources of soluble fibre also release serotonin – making your child happy but without a chaotic sugar rush.
There is some great advice on how foods can improve your mood here.
This is why it is crucial to consider what you’re packing into your child’s lunch or what your child is eating at school.
Luckily, if you opt for your child to have their lunch in school, Britain’s school lunches have already had an amazing makeover. The government now have strict policies about what is and isn’t allowed in school lunch. For example, no more than two portions of fried, breaded or battered food can be served a week. You can find out more here.
There is a great section on healthy eating on the NHS website that you can view here.
*NHS interactive Eatwell guide – can be viewed here https://www.nhs.uk/livewell/goodfood/pages/the-eatwell-guide.aspx
So that’s food covered, but what about getting more active?
Here at Tagtiv8, if we know anything – it’s that active learning works! You can check out the fantastic study done by Leeds Beckett University that shows this here. You can also watch the ITV coverage about the study here.
Through active learning, not only are children becoming healthier, research shows they are also learning more and retaining information from lessons.
However, we understand that if you’re reading this blog as a parent then you can’t dictate the school’s lesson plans. Saying that though, parents do have a say in their child’s education and if you think that you could contribute to the ways schools are run, you can have your say. Check out PTA UK for some great information about how you can be more actively involved in your child’s education.
If your school is already good at active learning – there are ways you can ‘up the activeness in your child’s day’.
Why not walk to school? Walking is a great way to start the day and ensures that your child is getting their daily quota of active time. We understand that the weather sometimes looks frightful but what’s more fun than getting your wellies on and splashing in puddles? You could even start a walking bus and get other children from the school involved.
If driving is a necessity, don’t go for the closest parking space. Walk from a few roads away even. This way you’re getting exercise too!
Although it may be easy to think that whilst your child is at school they are getting the activeness and nutrition they need, it is worth considering that there could be more improvements that could be easily made. Talk to the leader of the school and teachers and see if there is anything that can be worked on. At the end of the day, if we don’t communicate about our children’s education, nothing will be achieved. We all have the same goal – to make sure that our children are living a happy and healthier lifestyle at school.
Look out for our blog next week about developing a healthier lifestyle after school.