Tips
- Aim to gather information from different members of your school community! Engage students, staff members, parent(s)/caregiver(s), community partners, and Elders/Knowledge Keepers when identifying your priority area(s).
- If possible, use different information gathering methods to get input from different members of your school community (e.g., online or printed questionnaires or polls, feedback forms, insight chats or coffee chats, idea circles, group discussions, in-person or online voting, ideas board or box).
- Set as many goals as you feel necessary/appropriate for your priority area(s). Consider using the Healthy Schools SMART Goal Setting tool in the Support Tools to help you and your team set intentional goals for your priority area(s).
- Start small! Future Healthy Schools journeys can build off what you and your team have started during this journey or address other/different priority area(s) that weren’t the focus during this journey.
Prompts
- What do we have access to in our school community that can support our Healthy Schools journey? (Think about school resources and equipment, people in your school and community, and places in and around the school and surrounding community.)
- How have we ensured that student input is reflective of the whole school community, not just those who are typically engaged and involved?
- How long do we want this Healthy Schools journey to be and what’s realistic for us to accomplish in this time? (Note that Healthy Schools should be continuous and ongoing, but this specific journey in which your team is addressing the identified priority area(s) and working toward specific goals should have a targeted timeline attached to it.)
- What do we hope to accomplish in relation to our priority areas?
- How will we know we have been successful in addressing our priority area(s)?
- What kind of information can we collect on an ongoing basis in order to understand our impact?
Sample Priority Areas
The following 10 Sample Priority Areas have been developed as a starting point for Healthy Schools Teams to provide ideas on what health-related priority areas may look like in your school community. These priority areas are evidence-based and have been identified as key areas impacting student well-being, sense of belonging, and overall health and wellness. Your Healthy Schools Team may use these Sample Priority Areas in your journey or use the samples to spark ideas for other priority areas.
Culture and Spirituality
Recognizing and celebrating students’ diverse backgrounds, beliefs, values, and traditions helps students build a strong sense of identity, belonging, and respect for others (Manuel et al., 2021).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Guest Speakers: Invite guest speakers from different cultural backgrounds to share their experiences and provide entry/connection points to diverse cultures and spiritualties.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services
- Cultural Education Centres: Build relationships with local cultural education centres to further your team’s knowledge on cultural programming and services they offer.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services
- Cultural and Spirituality Assembly: Hold an assembly with cultural performances and traditions.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services, Teaching & Learning, Social & Physical Environment
- Representation Assessment: Have students collect information on the different culture(s) and spirituality(ies) of their school peers and update school policies to reflect your school’s diversity. This could include policies like more inclusive celebration guidelines, accommodations for spiritual practices, and formal land acknowledgements.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Social & Physical Environment
Digital Wellness
Digital wellness is the use of technology in balanced, safe, and respectful ways that will help students make informed choices online, manage screen time, protect their mental health, and engage in positive digital communications (Asselin et al., 2024).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Digital Literacy Workshops: Work with students to create workshops on digital literacy, including the importance of safety, security, and digital footprints.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning
- Classroom Policies: Co-develop classroom policies with students around technology-free days where class material is explored without technology.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy
- Digital Wellness Week: Run a digital wellness/digital literacy week where students learn more about safety and digital technologies and what being a responsible digital citizen means. Consider accessing Ophea’s Internet Safety Resources and Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Scenarios and Activities.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Social & Physical Environment
- Guest Speakers: Invite your local health unit/authority to a digital wellness event to speak with students and parent(s)/caregiver(s) about the impact of technology on youth development, as well as the steps to take to support students' digital wellness.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services, Teaching & Learning
Environmental Wellness
Environmental wellness is the value and connectedness an individual has with the natural environment. It helps students develop a sense of responsibility, respect for nature, and sustainable habits that support both a healthier planet and improved personal well-being (UNICEF Canada, 2019).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Tree Planting: Start tree planting initiatives through environmental stewardship programs.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services
- Outdoor Learning Experience: Move classes outdoors for specific subjects! Consider accessing Ophea’s Beyond the Walls and Outdoor Education Toolkit.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Social & Physical Environment
- Sustainability Policy: Have students do research, develop, and implement a school-wide sustainability policy that promotes environmentally responsible practices. Focus areas may include waste reduction, recycling, energy conservation, water usage, and sustainable transportation.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Social & Physical Environment
- Environmental Goal of the Week: Have students support writing weekly school-wide announcements that include an environmental fact or teaching point about the environment, as well as a goal of the week that students and their families can try to accomplish.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Social & Physical Environment
Growth & Development
Growth and development initiatives can support students’ understanding of themselves and others and inform students' own growth and development. They can also help students navigate social and emotional changes and understand the impact of societal factors on individual development (Government of Ontario, 2021).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Body Literacy Workshops or Presentations: Consider working with external organizations and/or subject-matter experts to host body literacy workshops/presentations that are age appropriate and reflect a range of gender identities and cultural experiences to promote understanding and respect.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Partnerships & Services
- Designated Catch-Up and Organization Time: Work with students and school staff to build in designated class time for students to catch up on work, get ahead on future work, and/or plan how they will manage their time and their work in the upcoming weeks.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning
- Weekly Class Meetings: With students, review expectations as a class, problem-solve together, and engage in critical thinking together as a group.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment
- Career Exploration: Create a school policy on annual career exploration and support based on students’ interests and goals. Consider having students access various online tools to help explore their interests, skills, passions, and emotions, and document what they learn about themselves.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Teaching & Learning
Food and Nutrition
A focus on food and nutrition involves creating a supportive food climate that promotes positive relationships with food and bodies (Public Health Ontario, 2024).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Student Nutrition Program: Provide students access to free nutritious options throughout the school day to support their learning and growth and help reduce absenteeism due to hunger-related issues.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy
- Family Food Day/Night: Co-plan and host a Family Food Day/Night with students, celebrating cultural diversity and recognizing the connections food can have to family, community, culture, tradition, history, and the land.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment
- Build Local Partnerships: Partner with a local grocery store, farm, or food charity. Donated fruits and vegetables to the school cafeteria allow students to explore a variety of nutritious options.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services
- Workshop: Host a workshop with the Ontario Dietitians in Public Health that teaches educators and parent(s)/caregiver(s) how to help children and youth have a positive relationship with food and their bodies.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Partnerships & Services
Injury Prevention & Safety
Injury prevention and safety involves creating a safe learning environment, educating students on safety protocols in your school community, and implementing measures to minimize risks (Public Health Ontario, 2024). Safety includes both the physical and emotional safety of all students and the school community.
Sample ideas to get you started:
- School Accessibility Walkthroughs: Co-lead accessibility walkthroughs with students around the hallways, classrooms, washrooms, play areas, signage, and evacuation routes to examine if they are safe and accessible for all students, including those with mobility, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. Use student feedback to inform school improvement plans.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment, Policy
- Pronouns, Privacy, and Personal Space Lessons: Promote emotional safety by teaching and modelling respectful language, personal boundaries, and the right to bodily and identity privacy with students. Reinforce that safety includes feeling included and respected for who you are.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Social & Physical Environment
- Bias and Harm Prevention Workshops: Co-develop and lead interactive sessions with students that help students recognize bullying, hate speech, microaggressions, and exclusion, and what to do when they witness or experience them. Consider accessing Ophea’s Engaging Students in Healthy Living through Drama for activities on bias and harm prevention.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Policy
- Safe Travel Routes: Partner with local health professionals (e.g., public health, health authorities) or your municipality to plan safe routes to school for students to promote active transportation and personal safety.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships and Services
Mental Wellness
Mental wellness involves fostering an environment where students understand what mental health is, recognize its importance to overall well-being, and feel safe accessing support when needed (Ontario Student Drug and Health Survey, 2023).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Mental Health Awareness Week: Organize activities, guest speakers, or workshops for students to gain knowledge on mental health and to build strategies to support their own well-being. Engage students in the planning and organizing to get their input on what they want to learn more about.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Partnerships & Services
- Morning Emotional Check-in: Have a system in place where students can quietly indicate how they’re feeling when they enter the classroom.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning
- School Wellness Centre: Create an inclusive, dedicated space accessible to students of varying abilities and ages where they can reset, access support resources, and engage in peer connected wellness activities.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Social & Physical Environment
- Peer-led Mental Wellness Clubs: Have students co-lead mental wellness clubs or mindfulness sessions, with different mental wellness focuses each week. The clubs/sessions should focus on fostering student leadership, reducing mental health related stigmas, and building a sense of community and belonging.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Social & Physical Environment
Physical Activity
Promoting physical activity involves creating inclusive opportunities for students to move throughout the day, reducing sedentary behaviours and developing lifelong active habits (ParticipACTION, 2024).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Daily Movement Breaks: Create a sensory and active hallway for students of all abilities to use daily for movement breaks.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Teaching & Learning
- Active Routes to School: Promote active transportation days for getting to school, such as walking, riding, or wheeling.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment
- Student Leadership Games: Offer the opportunity to a variety of students to lead recess games/activities that encourage inclusive play among all students, and/or plan tournament days based on students’ activity interests.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Social & Physical Environment
- Intramurals: Reach out to a local sport or parasport club to help run an intramural with students. This can be a great way to introduce a new sport or activity to the school community! Consider accessing Ophea's Play for All resource for inclusive intramural ideas or Ophea's Disability-Centred Movement resource for information on connecting with disability sport organizations.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships and Services, Social & Physical Environment
Social Well-being and Relationships
A focus on social well-being and relationships involves forming positive relationships, understanding how to connect with others, and navigating social situations, which help students feel a sense of value, belonging, and support within their social environments (Mental Health Research Canada, 2024).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Community Quilt and Identity Mapping: Have students create visual "identity maps" that explore their cultural backgrounds, languages, gender identities, family structures, etc. Combine the maps into a collective “community quilt” that can be displayed in the school to celebrate diversity, promote a sense of pride in the school community, and affirm that everyone belongs.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment
- Team-bonding Activities: Hold team-bonding activities such as collaborative problem-solving games or trust-building exercises where students work together to achieve common goals.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment
- Story Circles: Host story circles led by community partners each week where students and staff can share their personal lived experiences and have open dialogue to learn about one another.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Partnerships & Services, Social & Physical Environment, Teaching & Learning
- Student-led Affinity Groups: Establish affinity groups such as Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSA), Muslim Student Associations (MSA), or Black Student Associations (BSA) to foster belonging and support among students with shared identities.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy, Social & Physical Environment
Substance Use Prevention
Substance use initiatives acknowledge that understanding and addressing the complexities surrounding substance use among youth, and the impact of substance use on mental health and well-being, can help support the health and well-being of the whole school community (Ontario Student Drug and Health Survey, 2023).
Sample ideas to get you started:
- Smoke-free Policies: Co-create and collaborate with students to identify and determine what the focus should be for the policies (e.g., vaping, cannabis use) and what kind of policy may work best or resonate most with their peers.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Policy
- Bulletin Board: Co-create a school community bulletin board with students where all members of the school community can access resources and supports for substance use and related behaviours.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Social & Physical Environment
- Student Podcast or Video Series: Have students lead the development of a podcast or video series focusing on youth wellness and substance use prevention, featuring interviews with peers, local health professionals, or other community members.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Partnerships and Services
- Substance Use Education Workshops: Partner with local health professionals, such as public health or health authorities, to deliver interactive classroom workshops where students learn about the effects of substances, recognize signs of usage in their peers, and practise healthy coping strategies.
- Comprehensive School Health Area(s): Teaching & Learning, Partnerships and Services
Support Tools
Use this sample questionnaire as inspiration for collecting information in your school community about potential health-related priority areas! This information can be used to help the planning of Step 3: Develop Your Plan and Take Action. This questionnaire should be anonymous, if possible, to respect student and staff privacy and increase the likelihood of honest responses.
Use this goal-setting tool to help your team set a clear direction and a shared purpose by identifying the goals you want to achieve in Step 2. This tool uses the SMART Goals framework to help make your goals specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Feel free to customize the tool to better align with your Healthy Schools journey and download a new template for each goal you set!
The Sample Step 2 Journal Responses provide sample answers to the journal questions in Step 2: Identify Your School Community Priority Area(s), Assets, and Goals. Your team can use these as a reference to understand how to answer the journal questions, or get ideas for what a Healthy Schools journey might look like at this step.
This Sample Journey Summary Report is an example of how your journal responses for the 4 Steps will be summarized and visually displayed once completed. This sample provides your team with a preview of what the final Journey Summary Report can look like.