Since 2016, East Sussex Public Health have been working with Pre-Schools and Nurseries to help transform health and well being outcomes for young children and their families. In 2022, we achieved the HALO excellence award by promoting Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Oral Health within our setting.

Supporting Physical Activity & Healthy Eating 

At our preschool, we believe that active play and healthy habits are essential for children's development. Thanks to a public health grant, we have enhanced our learning environment with exciting new equipment and initiatives that promote movement and nutrition.

Physical Play & Movement

We have introduced a variety of resources to encourage physical activity, including:

• Early Movers & Sticky Kids CDs for fun, music-led movement
• Balls, balance boards, and a small-scale physical trail
• Opportunities for climbing, running, cycling, pushing, pulling, and ball play

 By implementing this inititive we aim to integrate gross and fine motor activities into every session, both indoors and outdoors and to raise awareness among staff and families about the importance of physical development in early childhood. We hope that through our work, children will actively seek out physical challenges, their coordination and motor skills with improve over time and that we are always inspiring them through our vibrant, movement-rich learning environment. 

Promoting Healthy Eating

We are passionate about helping children develop a love for nutritious food. During snack times, we offer a balanced selection of fruits, vegetables, salad items, bread, crackers, and cheese and we promote fun cooking sessions to explore new foods together. 

We also run our “Cooking Teddy” project, where children take home a teddy and recipe book to cook with their families. Recipes are shared weekly with the group and posted on Tapestry!

By doing this, we aim to:

•  encourage children to enjoy healthy eating and try new foods and to support families in making nutritious choices together.
• promote variety in children’s lunchboxes
• support cooking activities at home.

• Increased children's  willingness to try healthy snacks

Need Lunchbox Inspiration?

Preparing healthy lunchboxes every day can be a challenge. For fresh ideas and guidance, check out the amazing resources from the First Steps Nutrition Trust.

Oral Health

Staff have attended Oral Health training with all the latest updates. We actively encourage good oral health within our setting, not only through healthier choices with food and drink, but also in our role play with the children. The aim of this project is to:

• Build up early positive experiences and ideas about the dentist and oral hygiene​.
• To encourage children to be active in wanting to brush their teeth.
• To raise awareness in families of the importance of oral hygiene from the early years.

The impact of the use of this project and new equipment will be:

• Children will play and talk alongside one another about the dentists and learn that they are people who help us.
• Children will talk about teeth brushing through use of the dental care models purchased, and other activities planned.
• Parents will have more awareness of oral hygiene through our project, the use of Tapestry for feedback and tips and hints that come home.
• Children will learn about the importance of brushing their teeth twice a day.