Workshop on health-promoting nursery practice

Projects don't have to be complicated to bring joy and achieve success.

A workshop on health-promoting nursery practice was recently held at Hafnarborg, bringing together representatives from the Office of the National Physician and the nursery schools of Hafnarfjörður, as well as others concerned with health promotion within the municipality. The group shared experiences and information about successful and rewarding health-promoting projects within their school work. The most important lesson from the workshop was that health-promoting projects do not need to be complex or extensive to bring joy and achieve success. It is safe to say that all of Hafnarfjörður's nurseries are health-promoting in one way or another, but many still have to map out their work and formally register their initiative with the Office of the Chief Medical Officer to receive the title of 'Health-Promoting Nursery'. That will be the next step.

A platform for health-promoting ideas and case studies

Three of the seventeen nurseries in the City of Hafnarfjörður have taken the step of being accredited as healthy-promoting nurseries. This is an acknowledgement from the Office of the Chief Medical Officer that the schools have succeeded in creating an environment which promotes the mental, physical and social health and well-being of pupils and staff, in collaboration with their homes and the local community. An expert from the Office of the Chief Medical Officer attended the workshop with a presentation on health-promoting nursery practice and its value and benefits for the entire school community. They also presented to participants how easy it is to begin the process of becoming a health-promoting nursery.kindergarten. In addition, representatives from several of the town's nurseries gave presentations with photos from their own work. The aim of the workshop was to create an inspiring dialogue and a health-promoting platform for enthusiastic staff within the town's nurseries. Eight of the ten primary schools in Hafnarfjörður have become health-promoting schools.

A school environment that promotes mental, physical and social health and well-being

Health-promoting nurseries are intended to support schools in working purposefully towards health promotion in their work. This involves creating a school environment that promotes the mental, physical and social health and well-being of pupils and staff, in collaboration with homes and the local community. Schools develop a holistic and well-organised health policy that considers the whole school community. Implementation also includes access to the website at www.heilsueflandi.is, an electronic system where each school manages its health promotion work. A health-promoting school is not a project with a fixed start and end, but an approach that can be used in the work for the future. Each school works at its own pace, and it is anticipated that the school will take up to a year for preparation. The preparatory work involves forming a steering group, reviewing the school's situation, establishing a health policy, and completing a checklist on a private online portal to which participating schools have access. There, each school can assess its own position and subsequently monitor its targeted health promotion work. Participation is free of charge for nurseries and no preparatory work is required before applying. The Healthy Promoting Nursery School is the result of development work carried out in collaboration with numerous stakeholders. By taking part in the Healthy Promoting Nursery School programme, nurseries across the country are offered the tools and support to work purposefully on health promotion within their own setting.