Food: A Fact of Life have added six new activity packs to the website.  Each pack is based on a food theme and combines learning about healthy eating, cooking or where food comes from, with early years curriculum areas such as numeracy, literacy and physical development.

The activity packs can be downloaded from the website .

Barnet Public Health in collaboration with Yinka Thomas, an experienced nutritionist, from Middlesex University, have designed a toolkit to assist with educating secondary school-aged pupils (although may be suitable for some Year 6 children) on sugar, trans-fats and health.
This is a useful PSHE resource which includes:

• Film Links (each video is around 15-20 minutes long)
• Learning Objectives
• A Student Activity
• Teachers notes

Access the toolkit here. After the use of the toolkit, please facilitate pupils to complete this online evaluation form. Schools that complete the evaluation form will be automatically entered into a prize draw for the academic year. The winning school will be selected at random and will receive a monetary voucher of at least £50 in value.

Please share this information with your families:

If you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk.  If you’re eligible, you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that you can use in some UK shops. Money will be added to this card every 4 weeks.
You’ll get:

• £4.25 each week of your pregnancy from the 10th week
• £8.50 each week for children from birth to 1
• £4.25 each week for children between 1 and 4

You will also be entitled to FREE healthy start vitamins for yourself and children.

Who can apply?
In addition, you must be receiving any of the following:

• Child Tax Credit (only if your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less)
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Pension Credit (which includes the child addition)
• Universal Credit (only if your family’s take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment)

You will also be eligible for Healthy Start if you’re under 18 and pregnant, even if you are not claiming any benefits.

How to Apply
You can apply online:  Please visit here .

This webinar was held in February and was recorded and will be available to watch back on the Anna Freud Centre YouTube channel in a few weeks. You can subscribe for new content notifications.

Useful links from the session

• Value, Money and Me - online books, games and resources for families to learn about money: Click Here.
• Love Food Hate Waste - put the name of the food that you need to use up, and it will give you a list of recipes to use that food:Click Here.
• For low-cost recipes: Click Here
• Join the National Centre for Family Learning for Free: Click Here.
• Money Helper high-quality support and advice: Click Here.

Xplore is a Family Lifestyle Programme aimed at helping children and young people who are over the healthy weight range and between the ages of 4 and 13 to move more, eat well and feel good. This free 8 week programme supports families to make sustained lifestyle and dietary changes. For more information and to book on, please contact Xplore.Barnet@gll.org

How we talk about child health and obesity matters. Impact on Urban Health have developed this toolkit,  with lots of resources, focusing on the language to be used when talking about childhood obesity.

A  Sugar Smart Early Year’s Setting and School is one that takes positive, proactive action against high sugar consumption and raises awareness of the consequences of having too much sugar; for children this includes tooth decay, excess weight, and even type 2 diabetes.

If you have not already signed up to the Sugar Smart Barnet campaign, this is a great time to get involved and pledge to become a Sugar Smart setting. You can sign up on the Sugar Smart website. When you sign up, you will be presented with a list exciting Sugar Smart actions/activities that you can choose for your setting to take part in and record activity for. There is a wealth of national and local support and resources to support your early year’s setting efforts. To explore what is available, please visit the Sugar Smart Barnet website (local) and the Sugar Smart website (national).

Young Barnet Foundation is a membership organisation for charities and youth organisations in Barnet. YBF offers a programme where schools are invited to join as a partner. This gives schools access to YBF’s extensive network of voluntary, community sector organisations that work with disadvantaged children and young people in the borough.

47 schools in Barnet are already part of the programme and have access to YBF members’ services and resources – including organisations working in health and addressing issues such as wellbeing and mental health, healthy eating and nutrition, physical activity, drug and alcohol, and more. Projects delivered in schools are either fully funded or subsidised.  Joining Young Barnet Foundation as a School Partner is free.

To join, please visit their website or email Vincent Sagues at education@youngbarnetfoundation.org.uk

Sign up here to become able to benefit from funded and potential partnership projects with local organisations like BeLifted, Bread n Butter, Chickenshed Theatre and others who are ready to work with schools around the borough of Barnet. Find out more by emailing Tina at schools@youngbarnetfoundation.org.uk

The SMILE (School Meals Initiative for Learning Healthy Eating) project seeks to educate and empower KS1 children to make healthy food choices. The two main components of the programme are the roll out of health promoting trays designed to help children eat and learn the correct portion sizes for the main food groups for a healthy balanced diet. Alongside this are the delivery of healthy eating discussions with children and if possible parents. Taking part would of course benefit KS1 children and their parents, but as a school it could also be used for the Healthy Schools London award and contributes towards PHSE healthy lifestyle delivery. If you are interested in your school taking part in this project, please fill in the expression of interest form.  You will be informed if your school meets the eligibility criteria and/or when your school can start the project (as it is run in cohorts).

The NHS Healthy Start Scheme is for those who want to give their child and themselves the healthiest start in life. The new prepaid card allows you to get at least £4.25 a per week of food staples & check your balance at nearby ATMs with the Mastercard logo.  If you’re pregnant or have a child under the age of 4, you could be entitled to receive a prepaid card to support the cost of healthy essentials.

There are many benefits to joining the NHS Healthy Start Scheme. It could take as little 5 minutes to see if you qualify and to complete the online application form. Find out more here.