School Health & Safety
‘Ananda’ - Comprehensive School Health Programme
We believe that ‘health is a state of complete physical, psycho-social and intellectual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ and our ‘Comprehensive School Health Programme – ‘Ananda’ – or Child Happiness & Well being in Schools is an effort in a direction that exemplifies importance of health literacy in our large country, with Covid-19 & the aftermath as important lessons to ponder over through generations. The program is an effort in the direction of cultivating healthy habits among children and thereby making the future generation of the nation healthy & wise. The programme includes all the possible steps required to make children healthy-right from primary health check-up. It is an ambitious, pan India targeted socially oriented programme under which all school going children are expected to be covered twice or thrice every year as the need maybe for that age, are provided with comprehensive care for the health & well being of all children besides ensuring that ‘health literacy’ & ‘health consciousness’ gets imbibed early in children.
The program emphasizes on the importance of ‘health & safety testaments for schools’ in Indian settings instead of merely copying and lining up for insipid certifications that emphasize merely on documentation rather than actual application on ground. We strongly believe & practise that the key stakeholders of any school, ‘the teachers & the school staff’ need to be empowered with the requisite skills to implement & manage these individual child health centric policy frameworks.
Training sessions & workshops are conducted in schools to train them in adapting to the best global practices in school safety & health, while doing it THEMSELVES. By the end of these sessions, the schools are empowered sufficiently to manage these yearly exercises on their own with TRF limiting itself for an annual external health review exercise.
The key parameters that ‘Ananda’ covers for this unique school health & safety endeavours include;
1.School Organisational & Environmental Awareness
- Vaccination Chart
- Hearing
- Eye Sight (Colour-blindness)
- Growth Chart (yearly basis monitoring) – Height, Weight, Head circumference
- Blood Pressure (NCDs)
- Anaemia check
- Dental hygiene
- Learning related disabilities
- Access to electronic gadgets (iPads/laptops/mobile phones) &
- Allergies
- School Safety Committee status
- Documentation for child protection for the school
- Documentation/guidelines for emergency evacuation for children & school staff
- Documentation related to crisis management
- Appointment/Existence of vigilance/safety officer, heath officer, nurse etc. at the premises
- All compliances related to school provided transportation
- All compliances related to non-school modes of transportation
- All compliances related to general discipline/safety procedures at school premises
c. Child Centric Policies
Nutrition
- Provision of Nutritious food provided in school hours / Mid-Day Meal
- Adequate time to eat
- Food Safety/Hygiene
- School nutrition policy in place?
- Healthy food/drink adhered to as stipulated by DoE
- Provision of clean drinking water
- The school promotes physical activity/sports
- Provision of safe environment for physical activities/sports
- Adequate time for sports
- Adequate infrastructure for sports related activities
- School physical activity policy in place with appropriate guidelines/curriculum)
- Information on sun protection to parents & related equipments on ground
- Community involvement
- Policy & administrative support
- Psychosocial Environment
- Health Education & Curriculum
- Student Health Services
- Parents/school staff consulted during school health policy related developments
- Health policy of the school endorsed by the school management (including School Board)
- Regular communication with parents on new health initiatives or policy changes
- School health services staff (including nurse, dental staff) fully conversant & integrated with the state’s school health programs.
- Energy efficiency
- Water quality
- Indoor environmental quality (including Pest Control / Management
- Chemical management
- Sustainable sites within the school [Safe facilities / grounds]
- Sustainable sites within the school [School gardens]
- Sustainable sites: Transportation
- Waste & recycling
2. Psycho-Social Support & Intellectual Well Being Framework for School
- Positive school ethos within the school that supports and promotes children’s psycho-social health and intellectual well-being
- Leadership and management to support emotional well-being within school
- Supporting staff skills in relation to mental health
- Engagement with parents and carers
- Policies in partnership
- Identification to assess, monitor and evaluate the impact of support for emotional well-being and mental health
- Staff members build positive relationships/partnerships to promote emotion well-being and intellectual health
- The voice of the child is listened to and used as guidance to promote psycho-social support & an overall intellectual well-being
- Flexibility in a school approaching intellectual well-being and psycho-social health