THE importance of a healthy school environment is being shown through a new scheme.

The Cheshire Healthy Schools Partnership includes everyone involved with the school and is being organised by the Cheshire Education and the South Cheshire Health Authorities.

Around 50 per cent of schools in the county are taking part in the scheme and The Weaver School in Nantwich had their first meeting last week, while St Anne's School is well under way.

Headteacher Tim Newbould and staff met this week with representatives from Cheshire Education Authority and South Cheshire Health Authority to discuss the topic of health.

The school is one of many to be taking part in the Cheshire Healthy Schools Partnership, a scheme aimed at involving children, parents, governors and staff in addressing health issues.

The meeting was the first of many according to Mr Newbould and the school will now set up a special health team.

"We are going to carry out an audit of health issues in school. Then we can draw up some recommendations about how we can go forward with these issues," Mr Newbould said.

The children are to be heavily involved and a specially designed questionnaire will be used to find out the pupils' thoughts.

"We want to consult the children on their perceptions of the school," Mr Newbould continued.

"We are looking at healthy eating, drinking, the school's facilities, whether the children are happy, what they think about activities etc."

St Anne's School in Nantwich also began its involvement recently. Headteacher Sue Fau-Goodwin said some change had already been made and the school is now ready to conduct its audit.

"We have changed break-times so we now have healthy snacks to buy and it is really popular and we are looking at doing more activities in the playground instead of just sitting and waiting for the bell," she explained.

Indeed, recently the children took part in a food tasting session where they tried out a whole range of healthy foods including grapefruits, carrots, kiwi fruit, peppers and many others.

Although some of the food did not go down too well, such as the limes, deputy headteacher, Siobhan McKay said the year one and two pupils had a great time!

Jan Williams from South Cheshire Health Authority is helping to co-ordinate the project and she said it was an on-going scheme that the schools can take at their own pace.

"It is about what goes into making a healthy school, not just for pupils but for the staff, and everyone else involved," Mrs Williams explained.