Health and wellbeing in secondary education

During the last two decades there have been many initiatives introduced to help improve Scotland’s health. Doing so through education has become a major focus for the nation’s policy makers and leaders.

Devolution (1997) accelerated the process of highlighting health improvement as a key policy issue, since when it has undergone significant development and reappraisal. The Scottish Government has created a clear vision and strategic framework to address the nation’s poor health record, and in particular improve outcomes for children and young people. Addressing the gap in health inequalities remains a key challenge and requires new thinking on how to do this more effectively. Reducing this gap will be a complex process of improving wellbeing, changing attitudes, identifying effective interventions and pedagogies which develop health enhancing life skills and behavioural change. In short, schools face a major challenge to ensure that health and wellbeing permeate the curriculum, and that all teaching staff can confidently contribute to teaching, learning and behavioural change in this area.