Huntsville Public School (HPS) is one healthy school.
It was the only school in the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) to earn a gold Healthy Schools Certification from Ophea, a non-profit organization that promotes healthy, active living in children and youth, for the 2017-18 school year.
And thanks to its commitment to encouraging and engaging students in healthy, active lifestyles, HPS was one of just four schools across Canada awarded a Canadian Tire Hero of Play day, said teacher Shaun Vaillancourt.
Hero of Play is a program created by the Canadian Tire Corporation in partnership with the Government of Ontario, Ophea and the Canadian Olympic School Program. According to the Ophea website, the Hero of Play program recognizes “healthy schools that prioritize physical activity and develop an action plan that creates opportunities for students to achieve 60 minutes of physical activity every day, before, during and/or after school. These schools are eligible to receive free physical activity resources, free physical activity equipment, school celebration events and school visits from Canadian Olympians.” Schools can enter the Hero of Play contest as part of their Healthy School Certification; winning entries are selected by Canadian Tire.
On June 27, HPS received a visit from Olympian Dara Howell, along with a day of play and free equipment courtesy of Canadian Tire.
“The grade sevens got to lead either groups or stations and lead the children in their physical activities,” said grade seven student Emma Panton. “It gives the kids different ideas on how to be physically active, but out of gym class and out of school while still having fun. It also taught them a lot about team work and character.”
Student Blake Punchard, also in grade seven, said that the grade four to six students they were leading were excited to meet Howell and also had a lot of fun playing the variety of games available. It was also a good opportunity for the school’s French immersion students to mingle and play with their English-speaking counterparts.
Both Panton and Punchard are part of the school’s healthy active living team.
“The healthy active living team is a team composed of grade seven/eights that work together to create a healthy environment using Feed All Four (a TLDSB concept that incorporates mind, body, spirit and emotional well-being),” said Panton. “Throughout the year the healthy active living team has put together play days and other events similar to (Hero of Play day).”
Over the past year, students have also hosted a no-sugar lunch session for parents so they could learn about the dangers of sugar and how to pack a healthy lunch, and a math night with games in the school gym to teach parents ways to keep their children active.
They also analyzed classroom garbage and recycling bins for lunch items at the start and end of the year and found a difference in what students were consuming. “At the start of the year there was juice boxes and chocolate milk and bad things filled with sugar,” said Punchard. “Now there’s not very many things because there’s a lot more apples being packed, and bananas—healthier choices.”
Teacher Shaun Vaillancourt said this is the fourth year HPS has participated in the Healthy Schools program but it’s the first time it has received a gold certification.
He also said that the school is part of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Student Voice initiative and that HPS received a $2,000 SpeakUp grant. “Our grade eight students got to do a nine-week mental health fitness bootcamp this year where we went to the Summit Centre and we had community partners come in and talk about the importance of healthy mental health and good coping skills, and we did grocery tours, just to give the kids all the tools necessary to live long healthy lives, instead of self-medicating with the unhealthy drinks and the sugar and unhealthy choices.”
The school climate survey at the start of the year indicated that anxiety was on the rise with HPS’s intermediate students. “We found that since we’ve done all of our programming with the health unit and the fitness program it dramatically decreased the anxiety they were feeling,” said Vaillancourt. “Like Blake was saying, they are making healthier choices. We are seeing that they are using fitness as a tool to decompress and destress versus candy. Candy’s always going to be a factor with kids, but our students are more cognizant of the impact that’s going to have and they are making healthier choices because of it.”
And next year? They plan to continue on, building on what they’ve already done in order to reach more students.
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Agreed Mary! Well done HPS! Be proud of your achievements and keep it up! Healthy Active Living is a life long pursuit!!!
This article made me incredibly proud, but also incredibly sad. Back in my day (when the Earth was still cooling), we played sports after school on weekdays; and all day on the weekends. Granted, there were no video games, and even television was in its 4-channel infancy; but we were fit by default. Now programs are required to achieve a lesser result.
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We learned about teamwork: The natural leaders emerged: A lot of mental illness was obviated by the surplus endorphins coursing through our brains.
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None of the foregoing, however, is intended to detract one iota from HPS’ magnificent accomplishment. And thank you, Dara, for giving the students a positive role model. When I met Dara several years ago, as a receptionist at a local gym, she was so modest that I didn’t know that she was an Olympic-level competitor until she won gold. Athletic skill and hard work are only two components that form a champion. Never discount character.
Congratulations HPS. Job well done. You should be very proud of the work you have done around making good eating choices and mental health. Thank you for continuing the work of being a Healthy Active Living School.
Retired Proud Principal
Sharon Stahls
Here is a school located in downtown Huntsville. The gymnasium is tiny and the yard is smaller than other schools. Look what a dedicated group of students, teachers and community members can achieve. Well done HPS.