School health programme Healthy Kidz has built a new online platform and mobile app to support healthy habits inside and outside of school.
The Healthy Kidz programme has helped educate children in schools across Northern Ireland on the benefits of healthy nutrition, hygiene habits, physical activity, and emotional wellbeing. The scheme faced major challenges when schools closed during the Covid-19 lockdown as it was primarily delivered in a classroom setting.
Rather than waiting for schools to re-open, the scheme adapted by creating a new online platform that schools can use both inside and outside the classroom. Teachers can use the new online platform to access lesson plans and educational activities, and each pupil has their own health and activity reports to document their progress.
Pupils can download the Healthy Kidz app to stay connected to the platform outside of school, which lets them record their activity at home. They can redeem points for completing lessons and activities and use them to upgrade a virtual avatar and compete on class league tables.
Though schools are re-opening now, Healthy Kidz hopes the new platform will help kids take their lessons out of the classroom. Bringing everyone into one connected platform also means teachers have access to data on how all of their students are doing, and this data can be automatically shared up the chain to principals and governors so they can plan around the progress of pupils.
Healthy Kidz Director of Coaching Paul Carvill commented: "As the result of schools closing, we had to be inventive. Our virtual sports day in June was a huge success with over 500 schools signed up to take part in Northern Ireland. This online solution worked, so school began requesting more online resources. Now we have an online platform that we are really proud of and its positive impact to schools and pupils globally." Find out more at https://healthy-kidz.com/
Source: Written based on press release
