The statutory RSHE requirements cover teaching young people how to keep themselves healthy, including through physical exercise, healthier food choices, and good quality sleep. However, many young people face barriers to ‘building blocks for health’ that can help each person to enjoy good health.
The Association for Young People’s Health (AYPH) has developed the ‘A fair and equal opportunity to enjoy good health’ toolkit to outline potential solutions to this problem, and we've worked with AYPH researchers to create free lesson plans to help you explore this topic with students.
The lessons — funded by NIHR School for Public Health Research — will help your students: understand their rights in relation to health; identify and help mitigate barriers to things that can help them keep healthy; and, know how to challenge health-related stigma.
At each key stage, students are introduced to building blocks for health that can help to keep people healthy. Each lesson includes activities that challenge unfair assumptions about health and promote sources of support including medical professionals, the wider community and key decision-makers in local areas.
PSHE Association Subject Specialist Bethan Miller said:
“It was an incredible experience to work with AYPH and researchers to develop these empowering lessons that amplify the voices of young people in sharing what they feel is important for other young people to know about health inequalities. By engaging with the toolkit and the activities, case studies and scenarios in these lessons, young people will be better equipped to understand the rights that everyone has in relation to health, to recognise and challenge health-related stigma, and to investigate strategies for individuals and communities to access the opportunities they need to enjoy good health.”