“Health-Promoting School” as a Goal: The First Certificate Is Hanging on the Wall
Steinmühle has cleared the first hurdle toward certification as a “Health-Promoting School.” The State Board of Education recently awarded the school a partial certificate in the area of “Nutrition and Consumption.”
The title “Health-Promoting School” is an award presented by the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs. Efforts to further develop a health-promoting school environment can initially be recognized through partial certifications for the individual areas of focus within “School & Health”—specifically in areas that are particularly relevant to health in helping a school fulfill its educational and instructional responsibilities:
- Movement & Perception
- Food & Consumption
- Addiction & Violence Prevention
- Transportation & Mobility
- Teacher Health
Based on at least four partial certificates earned (of which the “Nutrition & Consumption” and “Physical Activity & Perception” partial certificates are mandatory, along with two additional health-related profile elements from the areas of addiction and violence prevention, Traffic & Mobility, and Teacher Health), schools can then apply for overall certification as a “Health-Promoting School.”
The topic of “Health-Promoting Schools” was incorporated into the Steinmühle School’s current work program in 2015. The faculty conference approved the decision to undergo the certification process. Since then, individual teachers have been assigned to various areas. These are
- Manuela Schmidt (Steering Committee—Leadership/Teacher Health)
- Friedhelm Wagler (Partial Certificate/Field: Nutrition and Consumption)
- Nicole Hohm and Heike Rabben-Martin (Division: Addiction and Violence Prevention)
- Michael Neirich (Movement and Perception Division)
As the school’s Ecology Coordinator, Carmen Bastian represents the field of ecology. This topic was included to ensure a holistic approach to the subject, even though no official certification is required in this area.
Friedhelm Wagler fulfilled the requirements for the recently awarded “Nutrition and Consumption” certificate through a variety of projects. These included, among other things, the installation of water dispensers, the “Healthy Snack” campaign, and the elective course on catering services.
The topic was also integrated into the curriculum in an interdisciplinary manner. It was covered in classes such as English, politics and economics, Latin, chemistry, physical education, and biology.
“As early as 2006, there were discussions about offering more variety and choices for lunch,” reports Friedhelm Wagler. The school administration, parents, a small group of teachers and students, the boarding school, its managing family (the Buurmans), and the head chef at the time, Bernd Schumertl, held discussions on the topic. As the years went on, according to Friedhelm Wagler, individual projects on nutrition led to elective courses in the middle school/catering program, an extracurricular club for grades 5 and 6 with strong parental involvement, and mandatory project-based lessons on bread baking, healthy cooking, the dietary habits of different cultures, and more. Over time, the overall theme was expanded to include individual initiatives such as breakfast and fruit offerings during breaks.
Arno Bernhardt, Director of the Marburg State Education Office (2nd from left) and Carmen Martin, coordinator and head of the School and Health Division (center), presented the principal team—Björn Gemmer (left) and Bernd Holly (right), along with Manuela Schmidt (head of the steering committee, second from the right)— the first partial certificate toward the overall “Health-Promoting School” designation, which a total of 54 schools in Hesse held in 2015.
It is his “brainchild”: Over the course of two school years, Friedhelm Wagler has compiled all the materials on the subject into a comprehensive file containing teaching projects, explanations, photos, evaluations, and brief summaries.
