Comprehensive School Health  |  In Practice

Comprehensive school health will look different at different schools, depending on the needs of the students and the resources and priorities of the school community.

Elementary School

A rural elementary school is focusing on ensuring all students feel safe and have a sense of belonging at recess and lunch hour. Grade 5/6 students in a Playground Leader team use information from classroom discussions and student surveys to identify how students experience recess and lunch hour.

They brainstorm ideas and develop an action plan for the year, including:

• Strategies such as teaching new non-competitive group games during recess
• Using sign-ups for certain playground equipment
• Acting as role models by inviting individual students to participate in activities, offering encouragement, and helping resolve simple conflicts on the playground

Middle School/Junior High School

This year, staff focus on ensuring new students feel welcome. They also want to ensure that students leaving the school during the year know they are valued members of the school community and will be missed.

A core group of students create a number of strategies to welcome new students, including offering student-led tours, assigning a welcoming buddy for the first month and introducing new peers to other students. A joint group of students and staff meet with new students and their families to review the school's handbook and code of conduct. Students are invited to contribute to a “Welcome to Our School” display in the front hallway. 

At the beginning of the school year, staff meeting time was dedicated to develop and discuss strategies for saying goodbye to students who leave during the year. As a result of this brainstorming session, a group of teachers design a package that can be personalized and presented to the student leaving the school. 

High School

Students at a high school have become champions of mental health. Two years ago, a student at the school shared her story about her journey with depression. While a shock to many, her story revealed a strong sense of hope as she was thriving in spite of living with depression. Sharing her story encouraged her peers to engage in a number of mental health initiatives at the school. Some of the initiatives included:

• A student action team that plans events for Mental Health Awareness week
• Creating and delivering public service announcements throughout the year
• Hosting school-wide assemblies dealing with mental health issues, with follow-up classroom discussions

Through this work, the school community is raising awareness about available community resources and is building closer relationships with several local agencies. This year, a number of community partners are working with the school to offer sessions for parents/caregivers and educators on mental health, including stress management, anxiety, depression.

Sample Implementation Process

1. Prepare. Identify health champions, form a wellness committee with community partners. Plan to include wellness into the school culture by using the comprehensive school health framework.
2. Create a shared vision. Brainstorm how the school can become a happier and healthier place to live, work and play - and be ready to communicate this vision to the school community.
3. Determine priority issues. Use assessment tools and strategies to identify issues, start with the easiest priority to gain momentum and communicate identified priorities with the school community.
4. Develop an action plan. Develop goals, strategies and actions to address priorities. Identify resources available, clarify roles and responsibilities, discover links to curriculum and plan for sharing with the school community.
5. Implement and monitor. Continue communicating with the school community, track progress and revise plans as needed.
6. Reflect, evaluate and celebrate. Bring closure to activities and reflect on whether goals were reached. Gather data from the whole school community, consider what worked and what didn’t and analyze why. Celebrate successes and plan for next steps.

Adapted from Developing Healthy School Communities, University of Alberta, School of Public Health, 2014