School is an incredibly important place for children who learn a huge range of skills everyday, attending academic subjects, understanding how to be independent, social and self-sufficient. Children also continually improve their cognitive skills in an educational environment.

Of course, there are always ways to create a more healthful environment for children, and as they attend school every weekday aside from holidays, it’s a great space to focus on when it comes to making healthy adjustments.

Here are some tips to help children stay healthy at school:

Educational Facilities

Encourage Proper Handwashing

Teaching kids to wash their hands properly and regularly is a great way to help them to stay safe and clean. Teachers can find some handy resources here to encourage children to wash their hands throughout the day.

Daily Mile Initiative

The Daily Mile initiative is currently running in over 86 countries and has over 3 million children running at least a mile a day. The initiative can be done by parents, schools and nurseries who want to encourage children to run outside in the fresh air for around 15 minutes, which enables them to complete around a mile of running distance.

Educational facilities can help to support the daily mile movement with a professionally applied daily mile running track which comes in different styles to suit your needs.

The vibrant, high-quality thermoplastic markings not only look great, but they provide an inspiring and exciting course for children to follow for their daily mile. Even better, thermoplastic lasts much longer than traditional markings, so that daily mile can be completed any weather, any season, day after day.

Parents & Caregivers

Look Out For Anxiety & Stress

These days, particularly following the Covid-19 pandemic, lots of children are struggling with stress, anxiety and other mental health problems. This can be because of issues in school, which is why it is so important to maintain a good relationship with your child's school and teachers.

It could be that your child feels stress and anxiety at home, in which case their feelings could then impact their schoolwork and overall emotional wellbeing.

The first step is to get to the bottom of the problem and track their mental wellbeing, ensuring you provide a safe space for them to talk about their feelings. You can then work with the school to provide appropriate support for your child both in and out of school.

You can find some handy tips on helping your child with their mental health in this mental health charity article.

Help Them To Develop Great Sleep Habits

Between 25 and 50% of children struggle with sleep, which is a huge problem as it can impact a child's ability to hold on to memories, hold their attention, develop their vocabulary and develop motor skills.

It isn’t just a child's learning that can be hindered by bad sleep too, as parents know all too well how their little ones moods can be impacted by just one bad night's sleep, let alone several.

By focusing on great sleep hygiene, maintaining a good sleep routine and working on reducing your child's stress levels you can help them to develop great sleep habits and enjoy a healthier school day and happier life overall.

Provide A Highly Nutritious Breakfast & Healthy Snacks

Whilst children’s school meals are much better these days in terms of taste and nutrition, you can still ensure the most important meal of the day gives your child a great start to the school day. We love this fussy eater breakfast ideas for kids video on Youtube for inspiration.

Packing them some healthy snacks like fruit, yogurt tubes and veggie sticks will also help keep them happy, healthy and satisfied if they need a nutritious pick-me-up before home time.

Simple Adjustments Make A Big Impact When It Comes To Children’s Healthy Habits In School

As well as our suggestions above, there are many different changes and adjustments you can make to a child's school day to help them live a healthier and happier life. These little changes all add up to make a big impact on a child and their mental and physical wellbeing both in education, and at home.