Waitakere College
- School location Auckland
- School decile 4
“Students learn better in the right environment, and healthy food is part of that environment” – Principal
The school ethos and organisation
The principal of Waitakere College sees health promotion as an essential element in the learning process: “Students learn better in the right environment, and healthy food is part of that environment.” He believes that the right environment encompasses teachers, facilities, resources, and policies, all of which work together to facilitate learning, and that nutrition and healthy eating are no more, or no less, important than any other part of the school environment.
He will be incorporating nutrition and healthy eating into the next strategic plan, as this will ‘put it into our thinking’ on a daily basis. It will also provide stability and sustainability for the future. The school is hoping to extend and refurbish the canteen into a sit-down café, and school and canteen staff are working together to investigate how this could be achieved.
Curriculum programmes
Year 10 students at Waitakere are required to complete an assignment for their health class every year, with one of the options being a healthy eating assignment. This requires students to research a topic pertinent to healthy eating at the school, and to promote an aspect of healthy eating to other students. The annual Health Week is coordinated by NCEA Level 2 students as part of their health promotion achievement standard, and includes healthy eating, exercise, and general well-being.
Co-curricular health promotion opportunities
The school has reduced the number of fundraising sausage sizzles (which previously affected canteen sales), and alternative fundraising schemes have been tried. The rugby team has found that car washes are as lucrative as selling chocolate.
The principal expects improving the food at the school will have positive effects on the student’s ability to learn. At his last school, he says, “At school camp, we no longer allowed children to bring fizzy drink and didn’t provide sugary beverages. They stopped getting wound up on sugar in the morning and crashing in the afternoon. Their concentration and behaviour at camp improved unbelievably.”
The school and community environment
So what exactly have these changes been? Sugary drinks are no longer sold and have been replaced with sugar-free drinks and water. Pastry-free days occur at the canteen every week, and these items are replaced with bread products and soup. While chocolate bars are still on offer, the canteen operator has noticed a decline in their sales. Changing the menu is ongoing and hasn’t been easy, and its success will depend on whether or not the students buy the healthier options.
Creating a healthier food environment has not been without challenges for this independent canteen operator. The school is surrounded by eight shops where students can buy the unhealthy food that is no longer available at the canteen. Attempts to influence what is sold in the local shops have not had any effect, and the shorter shelf life of healthier products has resulted in more waste and less profits. Despite these challenges, the canteen operator says she has really good support from college management and is able to have an active role in any decision affecting her work – and she is still able to run the canteen at a comfortable margin.
The school is in the process of fencing its perimeter. Originally intended for school safety, the school believes the fence will also help decrease truancy rates, improve student arrival times, and might stop students leaving the school at lunchtime to buy food from the local shops. The principal gave an example of another school where, by erecting a perimeter fence to keep unwelcome guests out, the students could no longer leave the grounds at lunchtime and the corner dairy lost the sales of 400 to 500 pies a day.
Consistency of healthy eating messages is seen as important. Changing the drinking habits of students was approached in a number of ways, by installing water fountains, removing sugary drinks from the canteen, promoting the ‘drink water’ message, and allowing and encouraging students to drink water in class. School sponsorship is another example – teams are no longer sponsored by fast food or soft drink companies, and instead have sponsors such as Pak’n’Save, Vivid Computers and the local laundromat. The college considered installing vending machines, but decided the machines would be competition for the canteen and not be in keeping with the school’s intention to create a healthy environment for students.
School and community partnerships
Health promotion at Waitakere College is driven by the school nurse and the head of department for Support Services, steered by a health team. It was originally part of a collaborative well-being project between the college, the National Heart Foundation, Sport Waitakere, and the Waitemata District Health Board. Student input is obtained from student leaders within the school.
The first step was the development of a healthy food policy, followed by the installation of water fountains, which encouraged the college to continue this work. Next were changes to the canteen food, which coincided with the school taking part in the Look Good Kai project run by Auckland Regional Health. This project encouraged students to make healthy food choices and ran a competition to reward those who did. Although the canteen staff initially found it difficult to add the ‘healthier’ requirements to their already busy food service role, it has been a success and they continued providing healthier options after the project ended.
Engaging parents at evening hui and fono meetings has been successful. While these meetings were designed to help develop the relationship between the school and parents, they also provided an opportunity for parents to learn about the health resources and policies at the school. The school has received positive feedback from parents about these meetings and the health promotion work.
