Tools to support "water in schools"
Healthy Families Lower Hutt is proud to have played a role in the development of a regional Water only Schools toolkit and supporting online resources. The toolkit is a collaboration led by Regional Public Health with Healthy Families Lower Hutt, Healthy Futures Trust, Bee Healthy Regional Dental Service, Ministry of Education and the Heart Foundation.
Water only policies in schools is a hot topic across the country. Water only policies in schools were recently announced by Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman as an environmental indicator in the Childhood Obesity Plan.
Many of the schools in the Hutt are pro-water and some have a water only policy in place. For those that are still on the journey the toolkit provides practical examples of how to take action to make this important step for the health and wellbeing of their students.
One example of the practical nature of the toolkit is Healthy Futures’ guide to setting up your school’s water kit. They even have kits available to purchase at greatly reduced prices.
The toolkit is a PDF that can be downloaded and used by schools and their communities.
The Regional Public Health water in schools webpage holds links to all the online resources for schools and their communities.
