Healthy Lifestyle Programs for Primary Schools
There are a range of government programs available for schools to promote healthy lifestyles for students. Read this section to find out about programs that encourage students to increase their physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption levels.
Each program has support resources available for your school to make implementation easy!
Nutrition program highlights:
Crunch&Sip
What is Crunch&Sip?
Crunch&Sip® is a set break during the school day when students can eat fruit (or salad vegetables) and drink water in the classroom.
Whether the break is in the morning or the afternoon, the idea is to help kids to re-fuel and boost their physical and mental performance and concentration in the classroom.
Each day, students bring a piece of fruit (or salad vegetables) to school to eat in the classroom, usually at a set time. In addition, each child has a small, clear bottle of water in the classroom to drink throughout the day to prevent dehydration.
Through Crunch&Sip®, schools can demonstrate their commitment to nutrition education in the classroom by making links with the curriculum and creating a supportive school environment.
Crunch&Sip® schools have a positive impact on students by:
- creating an enjoyable daily routine that increases fruit and vegetables intake
- promoting a positive attitude towards fruit, vegetables and water
- incorporating nutrition education into key learning areas of the curriculum.
What support do schools receive?
Crunch&Sip® takes a ‘whole of school’ approach, with the program incorporated into school policy. Registered schools also receive a Crunch&Sip® resource pack, which incorporates the healthy eating message into the classroom and reinforces the principles of Crunch&Sip®. The pack contains:
- nutrition and health curriculum materials (developed by DET) to fit the NSW primary school PDHPE curriculum
- background nutrition information for teachers
- the ‘A-Z of Fruit and Veg’ resource for teachers and activities for students
- an electronic (CD) version of the resources.
Schools that register are also recognised on the NSW Crunch&Sip® website.
