HEPAS: Healthy and physically active schools in Europe

Project Reference: 2019-1-LU01-KA201-050112 Context/background School-related physical activity and healthy lifestyle has numerous benefits on overall development of children. Schools which try to address the problems of physical inactivity and reshape their environment by improving their infrastructure, contents and organization of work bring multiple benefits to their students and improve their future prospects. Healthy lifestyle and physically activity in school settings can be promoted through developments in four domains: Physical education (seen as an educational course and part of the curriculum) Physical activity (other curricular and extracurricular physical activity, represented by educational approaches with a focus on physical activity) School Sport (organized non-competitive and competitive sport activities and events in or between schools) Healthy lifestyle (any initiatives linked to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle) Objectives The proposed project is aimed at building up capacity of school-related stakeholders – like teachers, educators, school headmasters – when it comes to the improvement of school-based physical activity for children and adolescents, as well as their healthy lifestyles in general: To map the current situation with regard to best practice related to physically active and healthy schools in Europe To develop a modular framework to promote physically active and healthy schools in Europe To develop a teacher training toolkit to promote physically active and healthy schools To make the modules and the toolkit available in a free open educational platform To raise public awareness about the importance of physically active and healthy schools To facilitate the development of national networks of physically active and healthy schools and an international network of national coordinators To facilitate international links between physically active and healthy schools via platforms like eTwinning Summarising our vision, by creating and developing a European network, we hope to inspire schools and their stakeholders around the continent to support children and adolescents to be more physically active and to lead a healthy lifestyle. Description of activities Through this partnership, the consortium proposes to develop a central platform for a modular toolkit in nine IOs made available as a free open educational resource. The project participants will be trained in a short staff training event to implement the modular resource in 15 national MEs in 15 countries. A final IO will consist in the development of a long-term public awareness campaign and sustainability plan, to implement the project results beyond the project partners and beyond the project lifetime. Four TPMs will support the project management and implementation. A short description of the results Four modules on (1) physical education, (2) school sport, (3) physical activity and (4) healthy lifestyle in school settings consisting of a report on best practice and a framework and guidelines for implementation A modular implementation toolkit to implement the four modules A public awareness campaign and sustainability plan to implement the project outcomes in further countries and schools beyond the project lifetime Impact envisaged Desired impacts at local, regional and national levels: Raising awareness amongst teachers and other school staff about the importance of physically active and healthy schools; Raising awareness with the general public through media on the importance of physical activity and healthy lifestyle in school settings; Students are more engaged throughout the school day in a more physically active and healthy school setting. Longer term benefits The project outcomes and results will be available on the project website as a free download. As project coordinator and leader, the UL will ensure that each partner effectively executes the dissemination plan and keeps the information visible on and via their respective websites.