SHE4AHA Newsletter #3
Welcome to the third issue of the newsletter for the SHE4AHA project, which is an EU project
supported financially by the ERASMUS + programme.
SHE4AHA stands for “School health in Europe for Active and Healthy Ageing”, and is a collaborative
partnership between partners from Denmark, Iceland, France, Portugal and Slovenia.
The overall aim of the project is to contribute to the European challenge regarding the demographic
change and healthy ageing. SHE4AHA works with healthy ageing from early in life, and develops
training and good practice examples from 15 schools around Europe, showing how schools can work
with health promotion and contribute in a more strategic and holistic way, to the important societal
challenge of European citizens staying healthy throughout their lives and into old age.
In this newsletter you can read more about some of the concrete pilot projects that we facilitate in
local schools. You can also read about a Danish school’s visit to the Icelandic partner, and how the
SHE4AHA project has been active in an international research conference.
SHE4AHA is interesting if you...
- are a school manager and want to create strategic changes in your school and become
a health promoting school - are a school teacher;
- wanting to work in different ways with health in the class room – or outside
- looking for ways to make your teaching more physical active
- wanting to give more empowerment to your pupils and teach them how to
make healthy choices in their lives
- are a teacher student teacher, wanting to prepare your students to learn about the
health promoting schools - are working in an organization providing vocational training to teachers, seeing a
potential in teachers knowing about the health promoting school approach
- are a school manager and want to create strategic changes in your school and become
If you want to know more about the SHE4AHA project in the 5 participating countries, you are more than welcome to contact the SHE coordinator in each of the participating country.
You find their contact details on the SHE4AHA website.
The SHE4AHA project in a Portuguese Context
Context in which Portuguese schools were invited to participate in the SHE4AHA project
Portugal has been a member of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS) since 1994. In
1997, the challenge to schools to join the process of enlarging the National Network of Health Promoting
Schools, according to the values set out by the ENHPS was launched. Since 2005 Health Promotion and
Education (HPE ) is compulsory for all schools, and currently exist the following priority areas of intervention
which have been worked on within the values of health promoting schools: Mental Health and Violence
Prevention; Diet and Nutrition Education; Physical Activity; Addictive Behaviors and Dependencies; Affects
and Sexuality Education. The National Strategy for Citizenship Education includes health as mandatory at all
levels of education. Each school or network of schools has a multidisciplinary team for health education,
including a representative of the local health unit, the school psychologist and other technicians. The
coordinating teacher of this team should liaise the activities/project of HPE with the coordinating teacher of
the strategy for education for citizenship of the school. In this context, teachers from the multidisciplinary
team for health of one rural network of schools, one urban preparatory school and one semi-urban
preparatory and secondary school in the District of Braga, Portugal, were invited to participate in this project.
Characteristics of the schools involved
The rural network of schools includes a set of schools from pre-school education to the 9th grade with over
700 students aged 6-14 years old (grades 1-9) and about 300 children from 3 to 5 years old. This network of
schools has several leisure clubs and projects, such as school sports, book restoration, theatre club,
journalism club, constructions and model making, gardening club, science and sexuality education club. The
urban preparatory school has around 700 students from the 5th to the 9th grade (10 to 14 years old). This
school currently has the Healthy School seal and the Eco-Schools seal. The school has several clubs and
projects, for example, the health education project, the school vegetable garden, the integrative project, the
math workshop and the music club. The semi-urban preparatory and secondary school has about 700
students from the 5th to the 12th grade (10 to 17 years old). The school has participated in several ERASMUS+
and eTwinning projects and has several clubs and other complementary activities, such as the arts club,
school sports, robotics club and “living science” club.
What have we been doing?
The SHE4AHA project started with a b-learning in-service teacher training course (25 hours for the whole
group and 25 hours for each school). The first 10 hours took place online. In this component, the concepts of
health, health determinants, health promotion and ethics in health promotion (SHE values), the setting
approach, and the SHE Pillars were co-(re)constructed. The SHE website was also explored and participants
were invited to explore the Material for Teachers on Health Promotion at home in more depth. At this stage,
these teachers wanted to expand the group and involve more teachers and some technicians from the school.
The second phase of the training (15hours) will be at the University of Minho and will aim to present the SHE
materials, the Revised SHE School Manual, the SHE rapid assessment tool, and the SHE Standards and
indicators. Subsequently, co-creation will be worked on, and the implementation theory of Evert Vedung and
an identification of an implementation strategy to promote health at school will be made.
Partner meeting and Study Trip to Portugal
In October teachers from Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark and Iceland met to exchange experiences on how
to improve student wellbeing in primary schools.
In Portugal, 20 teachers gathered to share their experiences of improving health and wellbeing in primary
schools. Singing, folk dancing, student presentations and local specialties were on the programme when
two Portuguese schools opened their doors to the teachers of the EU project SHE4AHA.
Through two inspiring days, teachers and school managers shared their experiences and challenges through
the project. “Despite the different backgrounds and prerequisites, there is common ground. We all want
the same thing for children now and future adults. No matter how little initiative we think we have, we do a
whole lot,” says Adeline Darlington, project manager at the University of Lyon in France.
Two of the pilot schools from Denmark had chosen to participate in the studytrip and as one of them said;
‘It’s great to see how teachers in other countries are working to improve student well-being,’ the teachers
from Denmark said unanimously. Many of the issues that teachers in Southern Denmark are dealing with
on a daily basis are also found among teachers in other countries.
Mobile phones, the healthy lunch box, exercise during the school day and the mental well-being of the
students are particularly common among the project’s teachers.
“We come from different perspectives and we all work in different ways, but with the common goal of
creating a better school experience for our students,” says one.
“Together we can move mountains. The study trip has given me new knowledge and experience,” says another teacher.
And a third teacher says:
“The project helps give children a voice.”
SHE4AHA in a Slovenian perspective
The coordination of the SHE4AHA project in Slovenia is carried out at the National institute for public health,
where we have been coordinating the Slovenian Network of health promoting schools for 30 years. The start
of the project was marked by an unexpected change of school that initially responded to the invitation to
participate. The current participating schools have been members of the Slovenian Network of health
promoting schools for numbers of years (one from the very beginning). The schools are very active in the
field of health promotion in the school environment and are motivated to participate. Differences in
experience in health promotion provide a good starting point for mutual cooperation: more experienced schools support less experienced schools in health promotion in practice. This would also be the first
recommendation of the SHE4AHA project.
The 3 participating schools have chosen different themes and different approaches in the field of healthy
lifestyle promotion for the pilot project.
In the Toneta Tomšiča Primary School, Knežak the focus will be on physical activities. Due to the decrease in
physical abilities among pupils as a consequence of the measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic
(‘schooling at a distance’/online learning), the pilot project will carry out various activities to increase physical
literacy among pupils in the school.
The Bistrica ob Sotli Primary School will also be involved in promoting physical activity. Pupils, teachers and
the rest of the school will count the number of rounds they will walk in the school stadium. They have set
themselves the goal of walking a distance equivalent to the length of the national border (1370 km). The pilot
project will also cover mental health topics. A programme of 10 workshops entitled “This is me” will be
delivered to all pupils at the school.
The pilot project has been set up in a rather comprehensive way at the Dutovlje Primary School. With the
active participation of pupils from 1st to 5th grade, they will prepare promotional material with children’s
illustrations and descriptions of various activities to promote a healthy lifestyle. They will include different
health topics: nutrition, exercise, mental health, outdoor learning, etc.
At the National institute for public health, we have so far provided a 2-day training session for participating
schools as part of the SHE4AHA project. We have presented different topics related to health promotion and
healthy lifestyles in the school setting (health promotion, determinants of health, health literacy, health
inequalities, how to become a health promoting school, integrated approach to health promotion in the
school setting, pupil participation, action competence, SHE network etc.) to the participants from the schools.
We have also met the schools in three meetings to inform them about the project and their participation.
We would like to provide them with all the necessary (professional) support during the project, and at the
same time it is also a good opportunity to exchange experiences between schools.
What comes next?
The SHE4AHA project is coming to an end, and you are invited to join the European final conference
in Brussels on the 16th of January, where we will present the results from the SHE4AHA project and
discuss with policy makers how we ensure active and healthy ageing in Europe.
You can find the programme here and you can register for the conference here.