Healthier children do better academically
The Auburn, Wash., school district adopted a plan calling for all schools to create programming centered around the “whole child”—including nutrition services, food sales, athletics, and education programs—with the goal of increasing academic achievement.
At a Monday workshop, Debra Gary, principal of Pioneer Elementary School, and Eric Boutin, the district's director of nutrition services, described how Pioneer created a "community of happy, healthy kids."
The school's staff supports the emotional health, safety, security, and environmental needs of children. The instructional program focuses on disciplined action, constant assessment, reading fluency and comprehension, and math computation and problem solving.
Pioneer emphasizes exercise to improve mood and brain function, Gary said. "Morning Madness," a before-school fitness program, ensures all students have the opportunity to exercise daily.
She urges school leaders to increase physical fitness by building it into the school day; reducing bus transportation, providing a short, structured "walking recess" for staff and students; rewarding students by letting them take special walks with the principal; using the staff to model and encourage choices for good health; and urging parents to incorporate healthy lifestyle habits into students' home environments.
The entire Auburn school district believes nutrition improves mood and brain function. Health and performance research reveals that:
• Morning fasting has a negative effect on cognitive performance, even among healthy, well-nourished children.
• Providing breakfast at school leads to higher test scores, significant increases in math grades, improved attendance, and less tardiness.
• School lunches are more nutritious than the lunches students bring from home. Students who eat school lunches get more vegetables, fruit, and milk and fewer cookies, cakes, and salty snacks.
• Children are more likely to gain weight during the summer months than during the school year.
• Overweight eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders in Washington state were more likely to get Cs, Ds, and Fs than students who were not overweight.
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