We teach students about the importance and benefits of healthy habits as part of our Personal, Social, Health and Economic syllabus, and promote physical activity, a balanced diet and self-care activities throughout the curriculum and school life.
Our approach aims to:
- Inspire - we have designed an exciting curriculum to engage children in a wide variety of regular physical activities.
- Educate - we will give children and families the knowledge and information they need to make healthy choices to live well balanced lives.
- Measure - we will track the health and fitness of all our pupils; we will work with children to set goals to improve their own personal fitness levels.
- Inform - we will inform parents and pupils of their levels of health and fitness.
- Support - we will offer a wide variety of clubs, workshops and master-classes for children and families.
Healthy eating
We are extremely proud of our healthy, nutritious and delicious school lunches which are all prepared fresh on site by our own chef, using quality, seasonal ingredients. Local and British-grown produce is given priority whenever seasonally available, while all fish and fish products are sustainably sourced.
The children enjoy their lunch through our specal Ark Conway family dining approach, where they sit on round tables in small groups, have proper plates, cutlery and glasses, and are encouraged to hold interesting conversations with their peers and teachers.
The menu is on a three week rotation and is updated each half term to match the seasons. Fresh fruit and seasonal salads are served daily.
Chef - Henryk Ludwig
Henryk trained as a Chef in Germany in 1986 and acquired a degree in hotel management in 1994. Henryk has been working in the UK for the last 23 years in Hotels, the German Embassy and one of the largest contract caterers, BaxterStorey. He enjoys producing exciting, nutritious school meals that pupils enjoy!
Mental health
We promote positive mental health for every student and member of staff, and have both a universal whole-school approach to mental health, together with specialised, targeted approaches for vulnerable students.
We also collaborate with children's mental health charity Place2Be. Place2Be is there to help children find ways to cope with difficult feelings or situations, so their worries don't get in the way of their friendships, their learning or how they feel about themselves. Place2Be's professionals work with individuals one-to-one or in small groups, giving regular support for pupils who need it. Place2Be always gets agreement from parents or carers before they support an individual through one-to-one counselling, and meet with parents or carers regularly to keep them updated.
Physical activity
The aim of the fitness programme is to ensure that pupils receive regular exercise activity. Lessons are designed to raise the heart rate and improve overall fitness, stamina and flexibility. Units across the year and across the school develop the following:
- Flexibility exercise. Children become more agile when they are able to stretch and move their bodies in a full range of motion. Encouraging children to begin stretching in childhood can help them maintain limber physiques throughout life.
- Strength and stamina. Strength exercises can help children build healthy muscles. With an appropriately organised programme, children can advance their strength and stamina. Due to the age of pupils and risk of injury during growth spurts no weights will be used during strength classes; most workouts will focus on non-resistance training and developing stamina.
- Aerobic exercise. Cardiovascular training is an important component of children’s fitness, keeping their heart and lungs strong.
- Circuit training. Children can apply their strength and stamina, and develop greater levels of fitness through circuit training. Circuit training combines aerobic exercise, strength, stamina and flexibility.