Healthy Choices Initiative
Bailey Station Healthy Choices /Wellness Initiative –
In August 2005 Cheryl White, PE teacher and Sherry Roper, the principal, for our brand new Bailey Station Elementary, wrote a Healthy Choices Initiative. We stated that our school had a ‘vital responsibility’ for promoting and teaching a healthy lifestyle to our students, families, faculty and community. Ten years later we are still teaching healthy lifestyles and instilling lifelong habits in our students, that is: increased physical activity, healthy food choices and positive social health (getting along with others.)
Short term and long term goals were written according to the National guidelines provided by the Center for Disease Control and Action For Healthy Kids. We have used the Alliance for A Healthier Generation’s resources extensively since we first opened our school by using their Healthy Schools Builder Program to help us implement new goals.
Below you will find some of our initiatives and policies that help make Bailey Station a healthy place to be! Please join us in promoting our Healthy Choices Initiative with your students, other parents, and our community.
We have an active, well-rounded Healthy School Team, which continues to execute and write goals toward building a healthier school and community. If you'd like to join, please contact Coach Mitchell, Coach Williams, or Heather Volner.
>Healthy Snack Policy- Make sure you are familiar with the policy found in the student handbook. The “skinny”? For every low or non-nutritious food served in the classroom, you are asked to also serve a healthy choice. For example: a cookie + grapes! Please inform your friends and other parents about our policy. Also, please make sure your student is bringing a nutritious snack each day. This is a great time to teach healthy eating habits.
Please refer to your child's classroom teacher for healthy snacks brought each day.
Healthy Tip of Day - Read during morning announcements and reinforced when students come to PE. This mini health lesson helps insures that our students are learning the mandatory Tennessee Health education standards. The tips can be used at home during any "teachable moments" like mealtime or during a car ride. Ask your child what the tip of the day was about!
>Fitness Infused PE Program –Cooperative games, lifetime based activities, health lessons, and promotion of community health events help promote healthy life-long lessons. We strive to make the gym the place where fitness is first! We offer a wide variety of activities that include skills and lots of fun! Our motto is HAVE FUN - GET FIT!!!
BSE students have PE class for 50 minutes one day a week. Please make sure your student wears appropriate athletic type shoes on PE day. Classroom teachers are required to take their students to the fitness park and/or out for physical activity a minimum of 90 minutes per school week. Many teachers also include some time of movement and physical activity in the classroom throughout the day. These combined activity times help our students get the much-needed exercise they need to be healthy and assure academic success. As parents you can do your part to promote physical activity as a family. All students need a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity a day!
>Faculty/Staff Immersion We know the value of everyone being healthy! We like to promote and enable our staff opportunities to live a healthy life.
As part of our healthy school environment we have extended our healthy snack policy to our staff events. We appreciate having nutritious foods along with treats at staff special events. We want to thank our PTA for serving us super healthy snacks, meals and treats! We appreciate it! Our PTA has shown us that meals can be delicious as well as nutritious! Thanks!
Please see Heather Volner if you are interested in offering services or helping in this area. Another good tip: gifts and rewards for teachers and staff can be awarded as non-food items – all teachers love Target and Wal-Mart.
>Faculty/Staff Environment – We ask that meals and snacks for such events as showers and celebrations have balanced choices. Please make sure to offer nutritious foods and beverages at these events along with other choices. We all appreciate being able to choose nutritious foods along with our treats!
>Fitness Park – YEA! We are so proud that within the first three years Bailey Station opened we had designed, paid for, and completed a three phase Fitness Park. Our Fitness Playground, as we now call it, enables students, faculty and the community to make activity a part of their daily lives. The park is also used in PE classes and as part of the 150 minutes of mandatory physical activity a week for our students. We have a team of parents who continue to work on fund-raising and upkeep for our park.
>Increased Physical Activity- Tennessee Legislation requires schools to provide K-1st students with at least 225 minutes of physical activity a week and 2nd-5th with at least 160 minutes as part of the CSH. "This law helps execute the necessity of increased physical activity and to address the increase in childhood obesity and obesity-related diseases." (TN Gov.) Scheduled time insures teachers will be able to use the Fitness Park each week. We are grateful that our administration supports and motivates this law for our students. Mandatory activity time combined with PE, helps our students surpass this state mandate. We urge teachers to utilize parent support for equipment and help. Please feel free to donate any equipment to your child's classroom that will help our students have fun being active.
Make it a family thing: be creative, there are lots of fun ways for you and your student to get 60 minutes of physical activity each day.