Staff at Comber Primary School have put in place a Health and Wellbeing Action Plan to prioritise the health of their teachers and school staff.
The school has taken the steps to create and roll out the strategy through the free programme ‘Work Well Live Well’ which is available to workplaces across Northern Ireland in all industries.
The programme which is delivered by leading local charity Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (NICHS) and funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA) aims to help workplaces improve their employees' health and wellbeing through personalised support. NICHS support organisations with carrying out a health and wellbeing survey, developing a bespoke 3-year action plan and strategy for their team as well as providing access to training, webinars, resources and networking opportunities, all completely free of charge.
Matthew Skimin, Vice Principal at Comber Primary School, says, “We signed up for the Work Well Live Well Programme because we wanted to positively influence and promote the health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff, parents and the wider school community.”
“Some of the health and wellbeing initiatives we have rolled out as part of the plan to date have included availing of free Mental Health First Aid Training for staff, offering staff Health Checks for all teachers and non-teaching staff, and providing staff webinars on a range of health topics. We’ve also been delighted to raise £600 for NICHS through a fundraising event.”
Mr. Skimin adds, “The Work Well Live Well programme has provided us with the opportunity to actively promote the level of pastoral care in our school and raise awareness of the importance of promoting good health and wellbeing across our whole school community. For the staff, they were able to avail of health checks which allowed them to have a greater understanding of their personal health and wellbeing and how to make improvements.”
“For our pupils, we promoted healthy eating and physical exercise. The NICHS Schools team came delivered their ‘Chester's Challenge’ four week workshop focusing on healthy eating, keeping active, screen time and sleep. The P7s also participated in the charity’s anti-smoking workshop. This was very beneficial and relevant to the children as they learned about both the dangers of smoking and vaping. The pupils have an increased understanding of how to keep themselves healthy and they regularly bring healthy break to school. They also have the opportunity to promote their physical activity during PE lessons and extra-curricular activities. We also promote Feel Good Fridays and Wellbeing Wednesdays, when the children are encouraged to go for a walk around the school grounds.”
To other workplaces considering registering for the programme, Mr. Skimin says, “The programme was very worthwhile and fitted into our school ethos of promoting health and wellbeing. It is a flexible programme which can be shaped to suit your school or business. The initial survey helped to establish a baseline for our school and highlighted priorities for us to tackle. We received fantastic support and advice from our NICHS Workplace Health & Wellbeing Co-ordinator and this helped us to put in place an effective programme for Comber Primary School. We would definitely recommend other workplaces sign up.”
Emma McCrudden, Work Well Live Well Programme Manager at Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke says; “As a local charity, our mission is to prevent chest, heart and stroke conditions and support people affected and our vision is a healthy Northern Ireland free from chest, heart and stroke illnesses. We recognise that the workplace is a priority setting for influencing the physical and mental wellbeing of employees and the PHA funded Work Well Live Well programme which we deliver, helps to promote good health in workplaces across Northern Ireland to prevent serious illness in the long term.”
“Comber Primary School is a great example of a workplace which wanted to make a positive change and put staff health first. The initiatives put in place by Comber Primary School staff have been a great success and have made a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the team.”
“We are now recruiting new workplaces to take part in the programme and would encourage organisations of all types and sizes to get in touch to find out how Work Well Live Well can help them.”
For more information and to register for Work Well Live Well, visit nichs.org.uk/workwelllivewell
