Promoting the health promoting school

growth of the WHO’s “settings approach”, which sees the different settings in which people live and work as’whole’units, with physical and social environments. The school is a prime example of such a setting and health education in a school without a supportive environment will achieve little. Partnerships between schools and the wider community are essential. The community immediately around the school has a major part to play and parents and families need to be involved fully. Health services personnel can give advice and help to staff and pupils, and other agencies, for example, Social Services, will also have a contribution. In many countries, health education in schools has been incorporated under the wider “umbrella ” of personal, social and health education (PSHE) in which pupils are not only taught health facts but are encouraged to develop personal skills that will help them to discern, choose and practise healthy lifestyles for themselves. Facts about health taught in a didactic way, without the development of the skills needed to apply them, are unlikely to be effective in promoting health