Incorporating Wellness into School Life

Overview and Background

Why integrate wellness into your school? Collegiate School, a JK-12, co-ed independent school based in Richmond, Virginia, began asking that question 12 years ago when a one-time activity sparked school-wide interest in helping students thrive beyond the classroom.
 
 
In the spring of 2005, Collegiate’s Physical Education Department hosted a Wellness Day for middle schoolers that allowed fifth through eighth graders to spend the day rotating to different activities and stations, including nutrition, ultimate Frisbee, a Seal Team workout, stress management, and kickboxing. The event was so successful that P.E. teachers continued to incorporate wellness into their curriculum and sought ways to integrate wellness outside of classroom lessons. They believed that to create healthy habits, their guidance needed to go beyond a three-week curriculum unit on nutrition.
 
As that sentiment grew, so did the P.E. faculty’s knowledge about the benefits of promoting wellness in a school setting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), school wellness programs can have a positive impact on academic performance, improve students’ health outcomes, and reduce high-risk behaviors. As faculty members in Collegiate’s Physical Education Department gained more information about these outcomes and shared them with other school leaders, interest grew in creating a wellness-minded community throughout the school,
year-round. In 2008, two physical education teachers, Kathy Wrenn and Amanda Cowgill, received a summer professional development grant from Collegiate to explore how to proceed.

With focused time and the school’s support, they created a wellness program for Collegiate named Link It & Live It, to emphasize the link between sleep, healthful eating, and physical activity — and how together they impact the heart, brain, and body.
 
 
Student wellness teams were formed for fourth graders, seventh graders, and eighth graders to foster enthusiasm for Link It & Live It. The teams, which continue today, spur interest in wellness among their classmates through promotional activities, such as sharing Wellness Wednesday Tips during morning announcements, designing posters that feature tips on healthy habits, hosting events such as recess tournaments, and presenting wellness concepts in skits during school assemblies.
 
 
Link It & Live It has become a signature feature of the school’s offerings and is included in the school’s new three-year strategic plan. Link It & Live It has also grown to support the health and well-being of employees and parents.
 
 

Our Wellness Philosophy

1. The school’s mission: to create a diverse and inclusive community of learners committed to a challenging and supportive educational experience that will foster the intellectual, moral, emotional, and physical development of each student
2. The well-known eight dimensions of wellness model, which includes emotional, financial, social, spiritual, occupational, physical, intellectual, and environmental health.¹ Focusing on these areas can help prevent future health problems by making healthier choices a part of one’s life.
3. The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSWCWC) model from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention²
4. Collegiate’s expansive drug prevention and mental health programming for students, faculty, and parent

Impact on Students

Impact on Employees

• A treadmill desk is available for employees to use throughout the day.
• Collegiate’s sports performance coach offers an early morning KickStart fitness class.
• After-school Zumba and Pilates classes. The Zumba instructor is an Upper School student, and students and employees participate together in the class.
• Professional Day Wellness Lunch & Learn Programs included guest speakers covering topics such as mindfulness, financial fitness, nutrition, education, and stress reduction.
• A visiting registered dietitian offered on-site one-on-one visits.
• The Employee Wellness Fair provided free preventive services to all employees, ranging from flu shots and health screenings to information on financial services and college savings to 5- to10-minute chair massages

• Health screening
• One-on-one visits with a registered dietitian
• Fees for events, such as marathons and bike races
• Monthly health club fees
• Weight Watchers program
• Fitness tracking device

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

• Be patient. The community has to be ready to embrace a new initiative, so take baby steps, and let the movement begin to grow.
• Communication is important. One way doesn’t work for all, so use a variety of ways to promote wellness programs, such as email newsletters, emails, print brochures, and videos. Word of mouth from happy, healthy employees and students is the best way!
• Talk to your insurance carrier. Companies have people on staff to help you start a wellness program. Plus, they often have wellness resources (and sometimes financial incentives) that can help you get started with the employee branch of your program.
• Talk to local hospitals. Hospitals have community outreach programs with free programs and speakers for student, employee, and parent programs. Talk to local businesses to see whether they offer corporate discounts for your employees (i.e., fitness and weight loss centers). Talk to your “in-house experts” — empower your employees and students to teach classes or share their expertise (remember our student Zumba instructor!).
• Continue to tweak. Send out surveys, and ask for feedback from all your groups (students, parents, and employees) to see what they want to add or change.
• Share information with others. It is important to network with other people in the wellness world. Get connected to share ideas, contacts, resources, and more.