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STUDENTS
WHOLE BENEFITS
EDUCATORS
It’s common sense: healthy children are better learners. And as more research surrounding “the learning connection” – the crucial link between quality nutrition, physical activity and academic performance – is done, evidence backing that assertion only continues to mount.
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Action for Healthy Kids’ 2013 report, The Learning Connection: What You Need to Know to Ensure Your Kids Are Healthy and Ready to Learn, demonstrates that physical activity supports academic achievement and well-nourished kids learn better. It also shows that schools that offer students healthier food and more time to be active are seeing increasing fitness levels, better student behavior and even higher test scores. Simply put, kids who don’t eat nutritiously and enjoy regular physical activity are at an academic disadvantage.
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A recent report titled The Wellness Impact, released by GENYOUth, National Dairy Council, American College of Sports Medicine and the American School Health Association, reinforces the learning connection, illuminating the vital importance of improved nutrition and physical activity in creating a school environment that enriches students’ readiness to learn.
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The relationship has been particularly well-documented when it comes to eating breakfast. A review of 50 studies, which appeared in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of School Health, points to growing research that reveals that skipping breakfast hurts kids’ overall cognitive performance as demonstrated through their levels of alertness, attention, memory, problem-solving and mathematics skills. By contrast, a 2013 analysis shows that, on average, students who eat school breakfast attend 1.5 more days of school per year and score 17.5 percent higher on standardized math tests.
ADMINISTRATORS
“Schools have more influence on the lives of young people than any other social institution except the family and provide a setting in which friendship networks develop, socialization occurs, and norms that govern behavior are developed and reinforced.”
—Healthy People 2010, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The aim of school wellness programs is to support and enhance the health and wellbeing of students and families by improving the school environment, policies, and educational opportunities. Evidence shows that there are seven educationally relevant health issues affecting under-served youth: 1) vision, 2) asthma, 3) teen pregnancy, 4) aggression and violence, 5) physical activity, 6) breakfast, and 7) inattention and hyperactivity.9 Indicators of poor health—such as hunger, substance abuse, physical inactivity, and violence—have been consistently shown to negatively impact academic performance and affect school attendance, grades and test scores, and the ability to learn and focus in class.[1],[2],[3],[4]
However, research shows that school health and wellness programs can have a positive impact on academic performance and educational outcomes, as well as improving students’ health outcomes and reducing high-risk behaviors.
[5],[6],[7],[8]
School wellness programs provide a means for improving school health policies, curricula and programs that support the overall health and education of students, families, and their communities. A school wellness program is a commitment to supporting the whole student, by addressing the physical and mental health of students as an integral component of learning, growing, thriving and succeeding.
WholeSoul.org offers the tools to provide all school children and their families access to holistic wellness programs that address the needs of the entire child : Physically, emotionally, and academically.
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1] Swingle CA. The relationship between the health of school-age children and learning: implications for schools. Lansing, MI: Michigan Department of Community Health; 1997.
[2] Shephard RJ. Habitual physical activity and academic performance. Nutrition Reviews 1996;54(4 Pt 2):S32–S36.
[3] Mandell DJ, Hill SL, Carter L, Brandon RN. The impact of substance use and violence/delinquency on academic achievement for groups of middle and high school students in Washington. Seattle, WA: Washington Kids Count, Human Services Policy Center, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington; 2002.
[4] Hanson T et al. Ensuring That No Child Is Left Behind: How Are Student Health Risks & Resilience Related To the Academic Progress of Schools? San Francisco, CA: WestEd; 2004.
[5] Murray NG, Low BJ, Hollis C, Cross AW, Davis SM. Coordinated school health programs and academic achievement: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of School Health 2007;77(9):589–600.
[6] Taras H. Nutrition and student performance at school. Journal of School Health 2005;75(6):199–213.
[7] Taras H. Physical activity and student performance at school. Journal of School Health 2005;75(6):214–218.
[8] Taras H, Potts-Datema W. Chronic health conditions and student performance at school. Journal of School Health 2005;75(7):255–266.
[9] Basch, C. E. (2011). Healthier students are better learners: high-quality, strategically planned, and effectively coordinated school health programs must be a fundamental mission of schools to help close the achievement gap. Journal of School Health, 81 (10), 650-662