Holistic School Health Promotion Program

The plan of this program was born in 2003: corresponding to the Parliamentary decision No. 46/2003. (IV.16.), and to the Public Health Interministerial Board's decisions the Ministry of Health. Holistic health promotion means a holistic, whole school approach where health promotion has to be part of the everyday life of the school. Effective implementation of HHP having so many beneficial consequences it is considered a „whole society" target by the public health and the education administration as well. Therefore, in March 2016, in a joint effort the Department of Education and the Department of Health of the Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary issued a Recommendation for every-day HHP activities of the pedagogues, listing all those websites where help would be available for them. The HHP Recommendation was mailed in 2016 to every school leader and to the directors of the Regional Pedagogical Centres, and was published online. Since April 2016 the network of the Educational Authority of Hungary consented to include HHP Recommendation into their regular professional meetings. There are four main health promoting tasks for schools to do in their daily work - with participation of the whole school, of parents and the public environment: I.) Healthy eating - potentially based on local food products; II.) Daily physical education fulfilling health promotion criteria (15,16,17) and other forms of physical activity; III.) Appropriate pedagogic methods (including also the use of arts) to enhance mental health; IV.) Improving health literacy and health competencies of the children (see enclosure). The first 3 sets are followed up by national surveys, while for the fourth the survey is being developed through inter-sectorial collaboration. Expanding the network include teacher and school staff support for implementing the whole-school approach in every school. Other upcoming measures include awareness-raising and educational activities involving parents and providing recreational activities. Another point is to involve Health Promoting Offices (a novel element of the Hungarian primary health care system and provide a direct and effective link between health development activities and curative medicine) to the program. HOPs facilitate cooperation among health-promoting organisations in their micro-region and assist local communities to render settings of everyday life healthier and promote actions for improving health. In order to support schools, new teaching-learning modules and activities have been developed, which are in the piloting phase in 2019. The program is followed up by regular, separate measurements, according to program elements. A national network involving school nurses, Health Promoting Offices and the Klebelsberg Centre for Public Education Institution Management was established. Teacher trainings and guidance materials, as well as educational resources were developed and made available for schools to help the implementation. Various research projects follow this national program. One finding shows, that due to the efforts in the program, 87% of high school students identify health issues as important or very important, 58% of school children want to know more about health through school discussions, and 60% of parents think that health education is a shared task and responsibility of parents and the school.