Better Schools through Health: networking for health promoting schools in Europe.

HEALTH promotion; HEALTH education; PREVENTIVE health services; SCHOOLS; LEARNING; TEACHING

LITHUANIA; EUROPE

Education and health have shared interests. Unifying these allows schools to become better places to enjoy learning, teaching and working. Health promoting schools have shown evidence of improving the health and well-being of the whole school community. At the European level, the Schools for Health in Europe (SHE) network is one of the most sustainable school networks in Europe and worldwide. This article explains how health helps to create better schools. It focuses on the advantages of working as a network at a European level with direct links with schools, policy makers, practitioners and researchers. It describes the impact of networking on schools, what changes take place at the school level, and also at the regional and national level. The SHE strategic plan, which is a roadmap for the future development of the network until 2012, is summarised. Some examples of the results of networking are presented, including the work on developing indicators for health promoting schools within the European context. The article concludes with a report of the 3rd European Conference on health promoting schools held in June 2009 in Lithuania, with the Vilnius Resolution as its important outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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