Whole-school approach to physical activity

All schools are to some degree physically active schools. Many schools will find that a lot of what they already do supports a health promoting school approach to physical activity. Each school's plan for becoming a health promoting school will differ because of the school's current initiatives, the needs of the students, and the values and expertise of the school community. There are four general steps to follow in implementing any school-based change.

Raising awareness

For any change to be supported, people need to believe in it and feel committed to the change. Alerting staff and parents to the need for and benefits of physical activity is a good start. Raising awareness also involves collecting information on the school's current practices and taking a critical look at these.

Planning

Key elements of this stage involve identifying and prioritising those aspects which your school wants to address and then developing action plans for addressing them. Planning your evaluation should also be included in this stage.

Implementation

This stage involves working through the tasks and priorities identified in your action plan. This is the stage where you put in place the program, policy or initiative you planned for. If implementation is to be effective, all those involved need to communicate openly and support each other.

Evaluation

Evaluation should be a feature of all stages. Ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure that the planning and implementation stages are on target. Evaluation after the implementation stage will influence the decisions which you make about future directions and planning for your next initiative.

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