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Working Toward Wellness

[Insert Presenter Name]

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Let’s Share

Is there a team of people at your school who work on wellness-related activities?
If not, has there been a similar team in the past?
If so, what are some of the activities this group has undertaken?

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What do you mean by “School Wellness”?

“School wellness” describes efforts to create a school environment that supports student health and well-being
Examples:
Ensuring daily active recess
Providing guidelines for healthy foods served outside the cafeteria
Requiring nutrition education

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Local Wellness Policy

A required district-level policy
Nutrition and physical activity guidelines for all schools in the district
Some policies also include other aspects of student wellness

Goal: To create school environments that support students in achieving and maintaining good health, so that they can be successful in school

Efforts to address school wellness were made official in 2010 when the Federal Government began requiring that every school district that participates in the federal childhood nutrition programs (such as the National School Lunch Program) have a Local Wellness Policy. This includes every public school district in Maryland.

The Local Wellness Policy includes guidelines for the nutrition and physical activity environment for all schools in the district. Addressing these two topics in the LWP is required by the federal government.

The Local Wellness Policy is created by a group called the Local School Wellness Council, which is a district-level group of stakeholders with an interest in healthy school environments.

Some school districts opt to include other aspects of student wellness, such as the social-emotional climate, health services, the physical environment, and family engagement

The goal is to create schools that support student health (physical, mental, social, emotional) and make healthy behaviors possible.

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Did you know?

[INSERT 1-3 SPECIFIC ITEMS OR LANGUAGE FROM YOUR DISTRICT’S WELLNESS POLICY]

[CONSIDER INCLUDING ITEM THAT YOU SEE AREN’T ALWAYS ENFORCED, OR ANY NEW ITEMS IN UPDATED POLICIES]

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A policy only works if people know about it!
A policy only works if teachers and staff are supported in implementing it!

Enter the Wellness Team!

…but that’s not how it works at my school!

[ASK ATTENDEES] Were you aware of your school district’s wellness policy? Were you aware of the specific guidelines I shared?

If not, no worries! This is the case in many schools. Schools and teachers have so much on their plates that communication about the wellness policy might not be clear.

Furthermore, some wellness policy guidelines may require teachers to change the way they do things. Change can be hard! If a teacher has taken away recess as a disciplinary tool for 20 years, it can be hard to change that. Having alternative strategies and support are essential.

That is why having a Wellness Team can be so helpful! A group of folks with a focus on school wellness can provide strategies and support for their colleagues in creating a healthy school environment that complies with the wellness policy!

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A group of stakeholders who oversees implementation of the Local Wellness Policy at their school
May include teachers, administrators, staff, parents, community members, partners, and students

What is a Wellness Team?

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Team Structures

Formal committee

Subcommittee of existing committee
Online workgroup
Faculty meeting wellness policy highlight and sharing

Wellness Teams may be formal, meeting regularly with set agendas and minutes. Traditional committees like this will likely need a chairperson to develop agendas and move things forward. Meetings can be in person or virtual.

It’s common for teachers to already participate in multiple teams or committees, and it can be tough to find people to participate in a new committee. You may consider making Wellness a subcommittee a subcommittee of the School Improvement Team or some other existing committee. The subgroup can follow the procedures of the existing committee, and use those meetings to report on progress and seek support.

However, fewer people may be able to participate regularly in a formal structure. There are other ways to work toward wellness team goals without having regular meetings. For example, your team could work primarily through email and electronic communications. You may meet online periodically, but you can have discussions and accomplish your work through email and shared documents.

One final option for keeping wellness top-of-mind is to make it a standing agenda item on monthly faculty meetings. Each month, a specific guideline from the Local Wellness Policy can be highlighted, and teachers can discuss the status of that item in their classroom, ideas for making changes to be more in line with the policy, and what supports they’d need to make a change. If needed, temporary teams can form to address specific topics that come up that would benefit from focused problem solving.

A great first step is to brainstorm who should be involved in your school’s wellness team, and then consider what structure would best enable the broadest participation.

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The Wellness Police
The once-a-year health fair planners

What the Wellness Team is NOT:

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Assess
Prioritize
Strategize
Plan
Take action
Repeat!

Steps toward wellness:

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What are we doing well? What do we need to work on?
Self-Assessment Tools:
Your Local Wellness Policy
Maryland School Wellness Scorecard
SNAP-Ed Wellness Inventory

1. Assess

Deciding what to work on means taking an honest look at your school’s current environment. You may already be doing lots of great things! There may also be some things that aren’t going so well.

There are several tools out there to help you take stock of what needs work. The first is your school district’s Local Wellness Policy. The guidelines in this policy are required, so start here to make sure you are in compliance. Go through the policy item by item and identify where your school has work to do.

There are other tools for self-assessment that you can use. These focus more on best practices for school wellness that will most likely meet or exceed what’s written in your Local Wellness Policy. These tools are useful if you want to shoot for high standards.

The Maryland School Wellness Scorecard is a statewide tool that was developed by the Maryland State School Health Council. The SNAP-Ed Wellness Inventory was created by SNAP-Ed for use in partner schools.

Both tools have similar contents, but are set up slightly differently in how you answer questions. Choose whichever one makes the most sense to you.

[EDUCATOR: if possible, provide handouts of 1) the district’s wellness policy, 2) the Maryland School Wellness Scorecard, and 3) the SNAP-Ed Wellness Inventory. Spend some time reviewing these if time allows.]

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2. Prioritize

What changes are most important?

What changes are most feasible?

Rather than try to tackle everything at once, pick one item at a time. Of all the items that need work as identified during your assessment, ask yourselves two questions:

What changes are most important? And

What changes are most feasible?

A change may be deemed important because it is a critical need (ex: access to clean drinking water), because it has become a problem (ex: behavior issues due to limited physical activity), or because the school places great value on it.

However, some changes are more feasible than others. Considering what you know about your school’s culture and community, decide which of the changes are feasible to make.

Ideally, you’ll identify an item that is both important and feasible. This should be your first project to tackle!

Don’t worry, you can tackle the more difficult (less feasible) tasks later as your team gains momentum.

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What is preventing this policy or practice from being fully implemented?
What approach(es) will create change?
Policy
System
Environment

3. Strategize

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Priority area for change: Students are not regularly getting 20 minutes of daily recess
What is preventing this policy or practice from being fully implemented? Outdoor recess isn’t possible when it rains. Many teachers don’t take their kids outside in the winter at all.

3. Strategize: An Example

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What approach(es) will create change?
Policy: Set a school policy for temperature ranges when outdoor play is required
System: Create a list of active indoor games that can be done in the classroom. Create a sign up system for using indoor spaces for recess in bad weather
Environment: Allow indoor recess in the cafeteria or gym when not in use

3. Strategize: An Example

Based on these barriers, your team identifies several strategies you can use to ensure that all students receive 20 minutes of active recess per day. These might include:

-Setting a school-based policy that specifies the weather conditions when outdoor recess is required. That way no teacher has to decide if 35 degrees is too cold or 85 degrees is too hot for recess—it’s in the policy. This policy clarifies expectations and supports adoption of the school level policy.

-Because there will always be weather that truly does not allow outdoor recess, the team can develop systems that support indoor recess. Those might include curating and sharing a list of indoor active games that can be done in a limited amount of space, and creating a system for teachers to sign up to use indoor spaces for active recess in bad weather.

-Your team identifies that the cafeteria and gym have some downtime in their usage during the day. These are areas in the indoor environment that can be used for indoor recess if teachers sign up.

As you can see, creating supports for the adoption of this one policy can be a big job! That’s why it’s important to prioritize and take on one item at a time.

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Steps to take
Who takes the lead on each step
Deadlines
Who should be involved:
For permission?
For support?
For execution?

4. Plan

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4. Plan

Action steps	Point person	Who needs to be involved?	Due date
1. Propose outdoor recess weather policy	Ms. Patrick	Administration (approve draft)	October 15
2. Adopt outdoor recess weather policy	Ms. Patrick	Full faculty (provide feedback and approve policy) Parents (notify, seek support, share clothing guidance)	November 1
3. Gather list of indoor recess active games	Mr. Smith	Full faculty (share suggestions)	November 1
4. Create a schedule when the gym and cafeteria are available for indoor recess	Mrs. Gunther	Cafeteria manager Gym teacher Administration	November 15
5. Create a sign up system for signing up for gym or cafeteria space on days of bad weather	Mrs. Gunther	Full faculty	November 30

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No need to start from scratch! Visit the Maryland Teacher Toolkit for ideas and resources
Organized by school wellness hot topics

www.mdteachertoolkit.org

4. Plan

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www.mdteachertoolkit.org

4. Plan

Action steps	Point person	Who needs to be involved?	Due date
1. Propose outdoor recess weather policy	Ms. Patrick	Administration (approve draft)	October 15
2. Adopt outdoor recess weather policy	Ms. Patrick	Full faculty (provide feedback and approve policy) Parents (notify, seek support, share clothing guidance)	November 1
3. Gather list of indoor recess active games	Mr. Smith	Full faculty (share suggestions)	November 1
4. Create a schedule when the gym and cafeteria are available for indoor recess	Mrs. Gunther	Cafeteria manager Gym teacher Administration	November 15
5. Create a sign up system for signing up for gym or cafeteria space on days of bad weather	Mrs. Gunther	Full faculty	November 30

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You’ve planned the work, now work the plan!

5. Take Action

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The work is never done!
Each change may reveal additional items to tackle
Priorities will shift as the focus on wellness increases

5. Repeat!

Assess

Prioritize

Strategize

Plan

Take Action

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Where can I go for help?

Action for Healthy Kids
Alliance for a Healthier Generation
[INSERT CONTACT INFO FOR LOCAL SCHOOL HEALTH COUNCIL CHAIR]
[INSERT CONTACT INFO FOR SNAP-ED EDUCATOR, AS APPROPRIATE]