Healthy Schools Plus - PLAN

Identifying Needs

The first step in the Healthy Schools Plus process is to use school community and local health data to identify needs.

School data

Your school is a data-rich environment.  You already have lots of information available to you, for example through RAISE online, your SIMS data (including school travel survey data), behaviour and attendance records and much more, see: Possible sources of baseline data.

You know your school community

It is also important to realise that what you know and understand about your pupils and their lives provides rich information for thinking about need.  Talking to children, parents and staff will also provide insights as to their concerns and possible priority areas.

"Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people all remark
We have done it ourselves".

Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching    

Priority Groups

During the process of identifying healthier behaviour outcomes you may decide you want to focus attention on specific groups of children and young people for one reason or another. Examples of such groups may include:

• Children in care
• Young carers
• Children with specific emotional or behavioural problems
• Children not achieving academically 
• Children who have been bereaved
• Gay, lesbian and bisexual  young people
• Children and young people who are overweight or obese
• Children who self-harm
• Children in military families

These may be the entire focus of your Healthy Schools Plus work or you may choose to involve the whole school, a year group or a class whilst also tracking the progress of these specific children as the work develops. It is entirely up to you to decide!