Two schools in the Golden Triangle are the only schools in Mississippi this year to be recognized for improving health and wellness for students by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
East Side Elementary in West Point and Franklin Medical Sciences and Wellness Magnet School in Columbus will both be awarded the National Healthy Schools Award at the Alliance’s summit meeting on Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C. The award goes to schools which are part of the Alliance’s Healthy Schools Program, which works to help schools implement initiatives that promote physical activity and healthy eating.
East Side Elementary joined the Healthy Schools Program in 2011. Franklin Academy joined the program in 2012, according to the Mississippi program manager, Valeria Hawkins.
The two Golden Triangle schools are two of 376 in the U.S. which will receive the Healthy Schools Award this year.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a non-profit founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation. It works to instill in children healthy habits that will continue into adulthood.
Efforts
East Side principal Jacqueline Gray said the school began instituting health standards her first year as principal. Every year, the school holds a bike-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. The students also have 30-minute recesses every day, as well as an hour of P.E. per week. The teachers also make sure the students get plenty of water and have “brain breaks” in the classroom, during which students are allowed to get up and do jumping jacks or other things to keep them active.
These “brain breaks” are especially important for young children, Gray said, because they have more energy.
“We understand that they need a break and they need a ‘brain break,'” Gray said.
East Side also has Healthy Food Guildelines which parents must adhere to if they bring food to the classrooms, Gray said.
In their school lunches, the cafeteria at East Side has decreased the amount of sodium used in foods and increased fruit and vegetable options for meals, Hawkins added.
After several years of pushing these wellness initiatives, Gray said she wanted to apply for the Healthy Schools Award.
“The first time we applied, we got the award,” she said.
Gray credited Lea Merkl, the school’s coordinator for Healthy Food program, as well as the school’s teachers, for making East Side’s wellness initiatives a success.
Franklin Academy is a magnet school that focuses on medical science and wellness, so physical education teacher Terrie Gooch and medical science facilitator Jennifer Purtel both spend a lot of time implementing health programs for the students, according to Gooch.
The school keeps students to a healthy snack policy and gives them extra fruit and salad choices in the cafeteria, Gooch said. The school also has a partnership with the YMCA, which Gooch says gets the students involved with the community.
Franklin has also implemented a bicycling program in which the students bike in place while watching a screen depicting cycling videos of people biking all over the country. Gooch said that not only helps keep students fit, but exposes them to other parts of the world.
Gooch has recently implemented a Walk Across the U.S. program in which students use a pedometer to count up their steps and make sure the entire class is taking enough steps every day to walk across a particular state. Gooch has showed the students how they can convert miles to steps and use the number of miles across each state from east to west to determine if the class as a whole has taken enough steps to cross a particular state.
Franklin also recently implemented a walking labyrinth for both the students and the public. It’s particularly good for the students and teachers, Gooch said, because it keeps them active and allows students to use their energy, but at the same time it’s a calming activity.
The school offers breakfast in the classroom, which Hawkins says makes breakfast more accessible to students who might otherwise skip breakfast because they are in a hurry or because they think breakfast “isn’t cool,” Hawkins said.
Gooch says the focus on wellness makes the students feel better and gives them more confidence.
“I challenge everyone to look at a child’s face while (the child’s) running,” she said. “They’re smiling.”
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