Grey Coat 8 Healthy Schools update


In July 2010, the new Coalition Government confirmed that Healthy Schools


will continue. The Government wants Healthy Schools to provide guidance to schools on the physical and emotional wellbeing of children and young people, recognising that Healthy Schools plays an important role in helping children and young people reach their full potential.


At the start of 2011 The Grey Coat Hospital was granted Enhanced Healthy School Status. This was very exciting for us and came at the end of a lot of consultation with staff and the school councils.


The two areas that we are going to focus on over the next couple of years are firstly improving students’ use of the internet as a means of effective communication, looking at the issues of safety and how to combat e bullying. Interestingly our Upper School Council felt that e bullying was not a huge concern for them so we need to look at how we can use their developed sense of responsibility when communicating on the internet with some of the lower school students, but I suppose this is


partly why Facebook does not allow under 13 year olds to join. There will be a lot more information out soon about the role that parents can play in supporting us to raise students’ awareness of the impact of their use of the internet and its public nature.


The second area that we will be looking at is one that is of national concern, that of young girls' drinking habits. What is interesting looking into National statistics is that the number of young girls drinking does not seem to have gone up - the large majority of girls do not drink - however those that do start drinking early are often drinking to excess. So we want to look at our PHSE programme for Upper School and talk with the Upper School Council and see what we can do in school to make sure that this is not an issue for girls here.


If you have any thoughts on either of the above two issues please do get in touch. The four overarching areas of a Healthy School are Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE), Healthy Eating, Physical Activity. Through all sorts of ways we are working at improving these areas and are always looking for new ideas. My current passion is food. We have worked very hard with our caterers to offer healthy food at breakfast, break and lunch at Lower School – where we


have a lovely cafe. However at Upper School the challenge has always been greater; very restricted space has always made things that bit more difficult. Recently though we feel we have really begun to make a difference at Upper School. We have listened to what the students have asked for, we have employed more catering staff and the results are that the numbers are steadily increasing – and no one could argue that the gorgeous smells from the cafe during the day aren't very tempting. The other issue we have been working on is making sure that our prices are very competitive with the local area.


There is increasingly more evidence about the links between effective learning and healthy diet. Do you know what your daughter is eating at lunch time? We are trying our best with the food offer at both sites and a cashless payment system so the money can be sent straight into school. However we do need your support with both sending cheques into school so that girls cannot spend the money on the way into school or go out at lunch time and spend it on something that is less than healthy.


Ms Parish Issue 11: March/April 2011


Grey Coat staff team wins match against students


Year 10 vs Grey Coat Staff Team The year 10 netball squad had an opportunity to show their stuff against some netballing staff members. It was a close game and well played by both sides. The year 10s started strong in the first half and gave the teachers a bit of a scare, with the scores level at the break. Then (most likely due to fear of humiliation) the


staff decided to use their wisdom and experience of many years of playing netball, to increase the lead and defeat the year 10’s...We are all looking forward to a rematch!


The staff team consisted of Ms Bond, Miss Clohesy, Miss Gee, Miss Prince, Miss Kaur, Miss Cadzow and Miss Di Rocco. - see photo on right.


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