Schools4Health – Innovating health and education: Because children and youth who feel better, do better

Schools play an important role in shaping children and youth's academic, physical, mental, and social development, with lasting impacts across their life course. Investments in state-of-the-art health promoting school approaches are a key entry point to cultivating healthier educational and social environments. A health promoting school, as defined by WHO, is one which “is constantly strengthening its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working”.

This seminar, taking place in the context of the Schools4Health initiative led by EuroHealthNet, explored how different stakeholders in policy and practice, across levels of governance and sectors, can work better together to support investments in whole-school approaches and enabling policy conditions. The seminar drew on the current state of play and highlight good examples to inspire further action which can optimise the health and wellbeing of students, the school community as well as the wider communities that they are in.

The seminar took place on Wednesday 31 January 2024 from 9:00-16:30, at the Hermann Teirlinck building in Brussels. Participants had the possibility to attend in-person or follow the seminar's livestream.

For any additional information about this event, please contact EuroHealthNet's Policy and Practice Project Coordinator, Gabriella Sutton.