Young people with healthy lifestyles have a good balance of work and play, a healthy diet and an appropriate amount of physical activity and rest. A healthy lifestyle is about both physical and mental wellbeing.

Education for health is concerned with the social and emotional aspects of learning, and relates to issues that are real and relevant to many young people, including sex and relationships, body image, drug, alcohol and tobacco use.

Education for health should seek to encourage young people to eat sensibly, stay physically active and maintain good levels of personal wellbeing. Young people should be able to look after themselves, and stay safe from violence, exploitation and injury.

Good health and effective learning go hand-in-hand. Schools educating young people on, for example, the benefits of healthy eating and regular exercise can bring about both immediate and long-term improvement to their quality of life.

In order to live healthy and fulfilling lives, young people need to understand the consequences of the choices they make. They need opportunities to develop self-respect and build the confidence to make responsible, informed and healthy choices about their lives. Schools can provide the knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils need to lead healthy lives, not just through what is taught, but also through the school’s routines, organisation and environment.

Developing a curriculum that supports healthy lifestyles

In order to help learners understand the characteristics of a healthy lifestyle and make informed decisions about living healthily, they should have opportunities across the curriculum to:

• meet, talk and work with a range of people, including professionals from the health and emergency services

• develop positive relationships with a wide range of people

• consider social and moral dilemmas, including the varied attitudes and values underpinning some of the healthy lifestyle issues they encounter in their communities

• find information and advice, for example through helplines and websites, and learn how to provide information to others

• prepare for change, for example by anticipating the challenges of new and widening social groups as they get older, and by considering the choices they may have to make

• feel positive about themselves, for example by giving and receiving positive feedback, and keeping a record of their progress and achievements.

The DCSF has identified five key objectives to help schools create a healthier environment for pupils.

• To promote a school ethos and environment that encourages a healthy lifestyle.

• To use the full capacity and flexibility of the curriculum to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

• To ensure that the food and drink available during the school day reinforces the healthy lifestyle message.

• To provide high-quality physical education and school sport, and promote physical activity as part of a lifelong healthy lifestyle.

• To promote an understanding of the full range of issues and behaviours that impact upon lifelong health.

Supporting resources

Healthy schools

The National Healthy Schools Programme

Making sense of health

Making sense of health

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

NICE has issued the first national guideline addressing the assessment and management of weight and the identification and prevention of obesity in adults and children. The guideline contains wide-ranging recommendations, not just for the NHS, but also for schools and providers of early years' education, local authorities, employers and town planners.

The guideline recommends that schools address their environment and ensure that the ethos of all policies helps children and young people to maintain a healthy weight, eat a healthy diet and be physically active. This includes policies relating to building layout and recreational spaces, catering (including vending machines) and the food and drink children bring into school, the taught curriculum (including PE), school travel plans and provision for cycling.

The guideline is available from the NICE website, along with a version entitled 'Understanding NICE guidance: preventing obesity and staying a healthy weight.'

(NHSP) helps schools develop a whole-school approach to promoting young people’s health and wellbeing. The programme supports the link between health, behaviour and achievement – it is about healthy and happy children and young people doing better in learning and in life.

is an educational and community health, web-based resource for teachers and young people in primary and secondary education, and also for parents and public health professionals. It is a preventative health resource that aims to empower young people to make better lifestyle choices, engage with community health issues, become better informed patients and use the NHS more appropriately.