Five early years settings in Guernsey and Alderney have been awarded the Healthy Schools Award, recognising their outstanding efforts in helping young children grow up happy, active, and healthy.
The awarded settings are:
· Bright Beginnings Day Care
· Butterflies Pre-School
· Blanchelande College Nursery
· Little Angels Nursery
· Little Acorns Pre-School at St Anne’s School in Alderney
The award highlights how these settings have excelled in five key areas:
🌟 Strong leadership and management
💛 Emotional health and wellbeing
🍎 Nutrition and oral health
🏃 Physical activity and active play
🤝 Family and community involvement
The four Guernsey settings received their awards during a special celebration morning, presented by the Patron of the Health Improvement Commission, Liz Couch, alongside Olympic and former marathon runner Lee Merrien.
This achievement is part of a broader collaboration between the Early Years sector, the States Early Years Team, and the Health Improvement Commission, aimed at enhancing the health and wellbeing of local children. General practitioners noted several positive outcomes resulting from the award initiative, including:
· A more holistic approach to health, improving nutrition, physical activity, and overall wellbeing.
· Healthier menus, mindful snack choices, and positive role modelling by staff during mealtimes.
· Strengthened partnerships with parents and local services, fostering reflection, growth, and shared learning.
· Practical resources such as balance bikes and vegetable kits, making healthy habits engaging and fun for children.
Parents are also seeing the benefits. One parent said, “Since my daughter started in Little Acorns (St Anne’s School, Alderney), there has been a consistent encouragement for healthy eating through such activities as smoothie and kebab making, which was a particular hit! In addition, the children are encouraged to take part in physical activity in fun ways. There is a diverse range of activities on offer, including yoga which has been good for expanding their knowledge of what physical activity is all about.”
Another parent shared, ‘Butterflies have an excellent exchange of information on healthy nutrition for children and adults with weekly prompts, advice and updates for our children to be motivated and excited about their health and nutrition at their age. Thank you everyone at Butterflies.’
‘It’s great to be able to award five more Early Years settings across the Bailiwick with the Early Years Healthy Schools Award. The settings have worked tirelessly towards meeting the criteria set in the document. Managers have seen areas of strength in their practice and those that require further development. They have worked in partnership with the States Early Years Team and the Health Improvement Commission to improve their offer, consequently positively impacting the wellbeing of the children in their care and their families. The award will now be reviewed to ensure it meets current guidelines and reflects the ever-changing needs of the young children in our care.’
To learn more about the programme and see how it all started, check out the original story from 2021.