"Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food" - Hippocrates

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” Thomas Edison 

As we continue to deepen our understanding of health and wellbeing, it's becoming increasingly clear that diet and nutrition play a crucial role—not only in our physical health, but also in our mental and social wellbeing. This is especially true for children, whose development can be significantly influenced by their eating habits.

Establishing a healthy eating routine early in life can lay the foundation for long-term health, helping to reduce the risk of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. It can also contribute to better dental health and overall quality of life.

As a school, we believe it is part of our responsibility to help children learn how to keep themselves healthy and we encourage them to eat healthily, exercise regularly and to drink plenty of water.

As you will have heard in the media, maintaining a healthy weight both as a child and as an adult dramatically increases our opportunity to live a full and healthy life. With this in mind, we would ask that you keep an eye on your child’s weight, and should you feel your child is becoming overweight and you would like to talk to someone about it, please make an appointment with your own medical practice or ask to speak with the school nurse.

It's best to act early to help your child to improve their eating habits and activity levels as this will help guide him/her on a lifelong path of eating well and being active.

If you encourage your child to eat a healthy, balanced diet, with only small amounts of foods containing sugar and fat, and you encourage your child to get plenty of physical activity, they should maintain a healthy weight.

Likewise, as part of our school curriculum, we develop the children’s understanding of how to be healthy and fit.   Subjects such as Science, PE, Design and Technology and PSHE all contain elements relating of leading an active, healthy lifestyle. 

All children from Years 1 to 6 will engage in regular PE sessions each week alongside break and lunchtime play opportunities. Children in Early Years will also have a PE lesson, in addition to their daily use of the outdoor learning environment. A range of extra-curricular clubs are also available to children to help them to stay active.

Together, we can ensure that every child at Kates Hill has a balanced and healthy diet along with a healthy and active life to ensure their long-term health and well-being.

Healthy Snacks

With this focus on eating healthily, we would like to make some suggestions for healthy snacks:

• A piece of fruit
• Dried fruit such as raisins
• Vegetable sticks
• Filled rolls / sandwiches / pitas / tortillas
• Crispbreads
• Rice cakes
• Bread sticks with cheese
• Crackers spread with cream cheese
• Cheese/cheese strings
• Nuts/seeds

Healthy Lunches

In order to ensure lunches remain healthy, we would also like to offer the following suggestions about what to include in lunch boxes:

• A good portion of starchy food: e.g.  thick wholemeal bread, chapatti, pitta pocket, pasta or rice salad?
• Plenty of fruit and vegetables: e.g. an apple, a satsuma, a handful of cherry tomatoes or carrot sticks, a mini-can of fruit chunks or a small box of raisins?
• A portion of milk or dairy food: e.g. an individual cheese portion or pot of yogurt?
• A portion of lean meat, fish or alternative: e.g. ham, chicken, beef, tuna, egg, hummus or bean/lentil salad?
• A drink: e.g. fruit juice, milk or water.  

Foods that are full of sugar and/or fat, such as confectionery, biscuits, pastries, sausage rolls and crisps, should be avoided where possible.

The following links contain some useful information on healthy packed lunches:

Lunchbox ideas and recipes – Healthier Families - NHS

Healthier Families - Home - NHS

Please note that we are also a nut free school.

Drinks in School

All children are encouraged to bring water bottles into school as a child requires 6-8 glasses of fluid (ideally water) a day to stay healthy and even small levels of dehydration can lead to reduced levels of concentration and affect behaviour. Personal water bottles can be kept in the classroom and can be filled as needed but should go home regularly to ensure they are clean.

To reduce the potential risk of damage to your child’s teeth and overall health, please encourage them to only bring water into school.