Mr Wong Yew Meng, Chairman, Health Promotion Board
Distinguished Guests
Principals
Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good Morning

It is a pleasure for me to be here this morning for the Second CHERISH Award Presentation Ceremony.

I am delighted to know that a total of 169 schools participated in the second CHERISH Award. This is a two-fold increase in the participation rate compared to 2001 – it is an increase of 85% for Primary schools and 125% for Secondary schools. My heartiest congratulations to all participating schools for a job well done.

The increase in the participation rate in the award is heartening as it shows that our schools are committed to promoting good health among students and staff so as to enhance the teaching-learning process.

I am also pleased to note that the reports submitted by schools have revealed many creative and innovative health promotion programmes for students and staff. Many schools have developed a more holistic approach in promoting health such as taking a whole school approach that involves students, parents and staff.

In East Coast Primary School, parents and teachers join the students in mass exercise sessions like folk dancing, modern dancing, the Great Singapore Workout and boxercise throughout the year. In Raffles Girls’ School, the PE curriculum is enhanced with 11 different modules to generate students’ interest in various sports. The students also use the Fitness Log to monitor their own health and fitness and design their own fitness management plans.

Many schools have developed interesting ways also to promote healthy eating among students. In Keming Primary School, students combine healthy nutrition with reading in a Reading Picnic Programme. Lower primary students read, enjoy healthy snacks, and play games on the Healthy Diet Pyramid outdoors.

Such initiatives are not just confined to the physical health of our students, but extend also to the emotional well-being of their students. The examples range from the use of a Buddy system for orientation of Primary one students to Journal Writing to allow better understanding of students’ emotional and social needs. In Gongshang Primary School, pupils share their views and problems through the Sunshine box which is a channel for their feedback. The pupils’ feedback has led to the development of the ‘Matters of the Mind’ Programme. This programme caters to the Primary 5 & 6 pupils and helps give them emotional support.

Teachers’ health and well-being also figure importantly in schools’ health promotion activities. Yu Neng Primary incorporates the sharing of health-related issues at its weekly contact time. A health corner has also been set up with equipment available for teachers to check their blood pressure and body fat. Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) sets aside one afternoon every week for staff to use the school’s facilities to engage in sports and health-related activities. A number of schools also adopt pro-family policies such as involving the families of staff in schools’ activities.

Schools recognize, too, the importance of involving stakeholders like parents and the community in their health promotion programmes.

For example, students of Crescent Girls’ School helped National Cancer Centre to develop a website for young children to educate them about cancer. The girls also collaborated with the Singapore School for the Deaf to design an electronic storybook in sign language.

This year, CHERISH Award 2003 will continue to reinforce the health promoting school concept in primary and secondary schools. In addition, there are two new developments for the Award. Firstly, the Award will be extended to Junior Colleges and Centralised Institutes with effect from this year.

The pre-university institutions are already promoting health to their students and staff in various ways. The CHERISH Award will indeed spur these institutions further to establish comprehensive school health promotion programmes that will set standards for best practice and demonstrate how to achieve tangible outcomes in school health promotion.

The second new development is the setting up of a School Health Promotion Grant by the Health Promotion Board. This Grant will help to support schools in their efforts to establish comprehensive and co-ordinated health promotion programmes and can be used for organising health promotion programmes for students or staff. The Health Promotion Board (HPB) will provide a grant of up to $5000 for each participating school. The school will co-fund the project by contributing an equal or higher amount. Details of the Grant and the 2003 Award Criteria will be given to all schools by HPB at a separate briefing.

With these new resources and support provided, our schools can better plan a co-ordinated school health promotion programme for staff and students involving the parents and community.

Our schools’ health promotion programme is now even more crucial in view of the SARS situation. The environment has changed and we all have to work together to keep our children safe and allow our children to carry on with their education in as safe an environment as possible.

Secondary schools opened yesterday with 96% of pupils attending. Primary schools will open tomorrow. Our children need to attend school in order to receive their education. As our schools continue to educate our students about SARS and remind them to take measures to keep healthy, I urge everyone in the community to also exercise personal and social responsibility so that together we can protect our children and ourselves from SARS. Parents and students themselves must take the necessary precautions and exercise social responsibility so that students see a doctor if they are unwell, and rest at home until they are well before returning to school. By doing so, students will safeguard their own health and the health of their school-friends. Schools also have put in place precautionary measures. By working together, we can help keep our schools healthy and safe for students and staff.

On this note, I extend my congratulations again to all winning schools and I look forward to seeing more schools participating in the CHERISH 2003 Award.

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