RESOURCES
Looking for support in building and maintaining healthy school communities at the district, school or classroom level?
You’ve come to the right place. Browse our collection of tools, learning opportunities and best practices from our partners and school communities across Canada. You can filter these by:
Advocacy Tools: Access tools that can be used to gain support for or recommend systemic approaches to school well-being.
Best Practices and Stories from the Field: Read stories and lessons from others working toward similar goals, and review research highlighting best practice. Have a story? Share it with us!
Learning Opportunities and Events: Access online learning opportunities, and platforms to support advancing school well-being, and learn about upcoming events.
Other Resources: Infographics, research, policy templates, and other supports for building and maintaining healthy school communities.
Supporting Students’ Mental Health For Post-COVID Recovery Discussion Guide
Education Canada Discussion Guides and Kits are an EdCan Member Exclusive Benefit for Organizations (School Districts, Faculties of Education, Corporations, Non-Profits), transforming evidence-based literature from our critically-acclaimed Education Canada Magazine into practical group discussion and self-reflection guides that can be used by K-12 staff to question, strengthen, and improve their professional practice across a variety of current and emerging trends in education.
Stressed at School Discussion Kit
Education Canada Discussion Kits are an EdCan Member Exclusive Benefit for Organizations (School Districts, Faculties of Education, Corporations, Non-Profits), transforming evidence-based literature from our critically-acclaimed Education Canada Magazine into practical group discussion and self-reflection guides that can be used by K-12 staff to question, strengthen, and improve their professional practice across a variety of current and emerging trends in education.
A mental health and well-being continuum of supports and services: 2021-2022 school year
The resource is designed to support school and school authority leaders in enriching their school authorities’ mental health and well-being continuum of supports and services through Comprehensive School Health approach.
System Leadership In Healthy Schools Podcast Series
The “System Leadership in Healthy Schools” series aims to empower school system leaders to improve a wide variety of outcomes, maximizing student and staff well-being. This Podclass: Electives series is brought to you by the Canadian Healthy Schools Alliance, a network of organizations on a mission to promote health and well-being in school communities across Canada.
Canadian Healthy School Standards
The Canadian Healthy School Standards aim to spark conversations and be a tipping point where the school community comes together to elevate wellbeing in schools. It was prepared for people who are interested in advocating for, initiating and strengthening healthy schools across Canada. You can use this resource as a checklist with which to chart your healthy school journey, or in a non-linear fashion, as you need it.
CASS Workplace Wellness: A Planning and Implementation Guide
The guide is intended to support and inform school authority leaders in collaborative conversations, resulting in the development of a school authority plan leading to support for implementation of a comprehensive and integrated approach to workplace wellness.
Health-promoting Schools: A Resource for Developing Indicators (2006)
This book outlines the successes that the European Network of Health Promoting Schools have seen over the past several years. It provides a foundational background information on implementation and evaluation.
UNESCO Strategies on Education for Health and Well-Being: Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (2016)
This resource outlines UNESCO’s new strategies for supporting education through health and well-being. It reflects growing international recognition of the inter-relationship between education and health, which necessitates a more comprehensive approach to school health and coordinated action across sectors. This new strategy reflects increased awareness of the importance of investing in adolescents.
Common Mental Health Problems: Supporting School Staff by Taking Positive Action (2008)
This booklet outlines how to deal positively with common mental health problems among teachers. The document seeks to provide advice to people dealing with individuals experiencing common mental health problems.
Health Promoting Schools Experiences from the Western Pacific Region (2017)
This resource highlights the key learnings and successes of several institutions in the Western Pacific region of the WHO who have implemented health promoting schools.
A Portrait of First Nations and Education (2012)
This fact sheet summarizes the current state of First Nations education in Canada, including enrolment, opportunities, areas for improvement and strengths. Although it is from 2012, much of it is still relevant today.
The Future of Public Education in Canada
This paper summarizes a conference of youth in Canada that took place early in 2020 to outline their vision for the future of education in Canada. The youth participants identified the following recommendations for their 10-year vision for the future of public education, in which their right to a quality education is respected:
Create national curriculum standards
Create national standards for teacher-training
Make key curriculum updates (Arts, Life-skills, Technology, UNCRC, Modern Jobs, Health)
Foster cultural respect and address social barriers
Provide a wide variety of educational opportunities
Offer free access to resources in schools (contraceptives, toiletries, menstrual products)
Ensure schools are safe and accessible
Enhance opportunities to learn multiple languages
Decrease class sizes
Enhance community participation within schools
Demonstrate respect and support for our educators
Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (2019)
This policy statement provides an overarching structure encompassing existing, ongoing and developing work in the education system in Ireland. The vision and ambition of the Department of Education and Skills in relation to Wellbeing Promotion sets out to ensure that by 2023:
The promotion of wellbeing will be at the core of the ethos of every school and centre for education,
All schools and centres for education will provide evidence-informed approaches and support, appropriate to need, to promote the wellbeing of all their children and young people,
Ireland will be recognised as a leader in this area
Health Promoting Schools in the Anglophone West School District of New Brunswick: A convergence of policy, opportunity and passion (2015)
This paper summarizes the work that PHE Canada did to test one Health Promoting School approach. The objective of the case study was to capture the experience of the New Brunswick HPS Pilot. Lessons learned from this experience can inform schools (or other stakeholders) in other parts of the country that might be interested in mounting their own HPS initiatives.
Values into Action - A Brighter Future: Edited Proceedings of the 29th ACHPER International Conference (2015)
This paper summarizes the work and presentations of the ACHPER conference from 2015. Several individual papers are included that highlight the importance of physical and health education for fulsome development of children and youth.
WHAT MATTERS IN INDIGENOUS EDUCATION: Implementing a Vision Committed to Holism, Diversity and Engagement (2016)
This paper explores an Indigenous approach to quality learning environments and relevant competencies/skills.
It focuses on select work from People for Education and draws out the research, concepts and themes that align with Indigenous determinants of educational success. This paper also expands on this work by offering perspectives and insights that are Indigenous and authentic in nature. The three sections that frame and further develop this textual/symbolic journey are:
Section One: Indigenous Issues, Indigenous Pedagogy And Educational Interconnections
Section Two: Reflections On The Four Domains And Their Proposed Competencies And Skills
Section Three: Embracing Indigenous Worldview And Quality Learning Environments
Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges
The purpose of this Charter are:
Guide and inspire action by providing a framework that reflects the latest concepts, processes and principles relevant to the Health Promoting Universities and Colleges movement.
Generate dialogue and research that expands local, regional, national and international networks and accelerates action on, off and between campuses.
Mobilize international, cross-sector action for the integration of health in all policies and practices, thus advancing the continued development of health promoting universities and colleges.
Principal Work-life Balance and Well-being Matters
This White Paper details the insights of presenters and participants at the Third International Symposium in November 2016, and describes the work of the broader global research community on leadership well-being and work–life balance. This document is intended to promote discussion among policy-makers and system and school leaders, and support the work of professional associations.
Focus on Well-being (2020)
This document was developed in response to changing educational environments as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It highlights different ways and strategies to incorporate well-being into PHE classes and beyond.
Canadian Right to Education Framework: Creating a tool to measure progress on children’s access to a quality education (2020)
This document outlines People for Education’s goal and plan for defining a framework to measure equitable access to education in Canada. This work is ongoing.