Rhyl is an Accredited Healthy School
At Rhyl, we are very proud to have been accredited as a Healthy School every two years since 2007 and our current Healthy School Recognition continues until January 2023. This followed a rigorous Health and Well-Being Review and recognises the fantastic work we do to promote our children’s health and well-being.
We currently hold the Healthy School Gold Award as a result of our work showing how we help to improve children’s health and well-being, particularly by eating fewer crisps, drinking fewer fizzy drinks and being more physically active.
Our current goals are:
- To deepen parents’ and carers’ knowledge about nutrition
- To provide opportunities for food education and cookery through the Community Kitchen
- To set up more mindfulness sessions for parents and carers and supporting other Camden schools to develop mindfulness across their schools led by our Family Liaison Worker
Food and Nutrition Education
At Rhyl, we value to important of health and healthy eating. We believe in giving children opportunities to deepen their understanding of food choices, food sustainability and healthy and active lives, we are therefore investing in our green spaces and are excited about the current development of our Outdoor Classroom. We recognise the vital role that outside learning and food and nutrition play in promoting physical and mental health for inner city children.
The Food and Nutrition Curriculum
Each year group has a minimum of three Food Days per year, where the focus is teaching practical cooking skills and promoting an awareness of healthy eating and nutrition. These are typically based around a topic such as bread or healthy fast food. In addition, all children are also taught about nutrition and issues around food miles and food systems through their monthly sessions in our food garden and outdoor classroom, where picking, tasting and eating the plants we grow is an integral part of our Outdoor Classroom Curriculum, which focuses on food growing and includes a wood fired oven. (This curriculum is based around monthly topics and was piloted in Rhyl Primary before it was later published for nationwide via the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and later Food for Life.)
We are excited for the Rhyl Community Kitchen to open in 2020, where we will be developing a new Food and Nutrition Curriculum which is built around plot to plate, the use of our outdoor classroom and Eco kitchen as well as incorporating all of the wonderful things we already do!
Food Partnerships
We value partnerships at Rhyl and we are lucky to have an excellent one with the Adopt a School programme from the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. Children in year 4 work with Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli three times per year. Along with this our Raising Aspirations programme in Year 5 works with The Ritz who come in once a year to talk about roles at The Ritz and the importance that food plays within the hospitality industry.
Sports at Rhyl
Sport and exercise is a key element of school life at Rhyl. Each child must take part in PE each week but we also have extracurricular activities to support this. Year 4 have swimming lessons throughout the year. We also have football teams for boys and girls, a lunchtime sports coach as well as a partnership with Arsenal Football Club who work with one year group each week as well as providing after school sports clubs.
We stay active in school with Active Class of the Week which is rewarded with extra football on Fridays. We promote activity through the week such as ‘Wake up, Shake up’, daily skipping, Break a Sweat Day, Joe Wicks workouts and well-being meditation sessions.
To see more about our Physical Education Curriculum and school sports, please visit the Physical Education page of the website.