When schools were asked to do more to support the health of their pupils, staff at Troon Primary School decided to get in on the act. They signed up for the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme and became the first primary school in Scotland to achieve a Bronze Award.

Teacher Helen Ross says that the original motivation came from the requirement for schools to become Health Promoting Schools – staff realised that they could not only lead by example, but also improve their own health and well-being at the same time.

“It started off because all schools in Scotland had to become Health Promoting Schools by the end of 2007,” explains Helen. “So while we were doing that, we looked at Healthy Working Lives as well to see how we could run the two in parallel, not just focusing on pupil health, but to make it more of a staff and community thing. Because there was a focus in the staff room as well as the classroom it made it much more of a holistic approach.”

Helen, who was acting principal teacher at the time the school started on the Award Programme, says it was very easy to set up. “Our adviser, Jennifer Stevenson offered never-ending support and she was just fantastic. She helped resource things for Health Promoting Schools as well, and she just supported us every step of the way and pointed us in the right direction.

“I was really backed up by a fantastic group. I think we had 10 people initially from teaching staff, non-teaching staff, the catering manager, active schools co-ordinator, school nurse, probationers, a student – we really sucked everybody in so it was really good!”

The school was also able to draw on support from others in the area who were also working on Health Promoting Schools, adds Helen. “We set up a cluster health working group, so that was a representative from each school in the cluster of primaries and the associated secondary. We were able to pool information and get Jennifer along to that, and she really helped us quite a lot.”

To meet the award criteria and support staff health and well-being, Troon Primary introduced monthly information displays, started up walking and cycling groups, taster classes in tapdancing and hula-hooping, and staff also paid for advisory visits from a personal trainer.

Helen adds: “The personal trainer was an ex-principal teacher at the school who went off and trained as a personal trainer. It was great, because not only did we need to get fit but it was fun too!”

She adds that staff were encouraged to take part in an organised fitness programme. “We did a big push called ‘Get Fit for Summer’. I got lots of healthy living wallcharts from Tesco, and it had a four-week programme suggesting what you did every week and day by day.

“We fitted lots of the physical activity stuff and the healthy eating stuff into that four-week period – because everyone was thinking about summer holidays and getting a bit thinner anyway it was a good incentive for people.”

Staff paid £1 a week for fruit to be made available at work, and Helen says many reported that they were eating more fruit at home too because they had enjoyed it so much. She adds that this was a cost-effective way of helping staff to eat more healthily, though the occasional treat was still allowed.

“We more or less stuck to our budget. We needed a little bit of help from the school funds, but we were more or less self-supporting and that was every interval for four weeks – although we did cheat on the last day of term and have strawberry tarts!”

While the school has achieved the Bronze Award, Helen hopes that the good work will continue and that staff will continue to think about how they can make healthier choices at work. “It has shifted the emphasis from thinking work’s where you work and after work, when you’re ready to collapse is when you think about your health.”

Helen says that other schools in the area have been motivated by Troon’s success and plan to sign up too. “The schools within our cluster have seen it’s achievable and they know we can share work,” she says. “Our cluster are going for it in a big way!”