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Health Promoting Schools

  • Background

    The Centre for Adolescent Health is a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Adolescent Health. We were engaged by WHO and UNESCO to review current policies and evidence, and to develop new global standards, indicators, and an implementation guidance for Health Promoting Schools (HPS) as part of their initiative "making every school as health promoting school.”

    This work involved a series of discrete yet related projects. It has been informed by several rounds of peer review by WHO, UNESCO and other UN organizations, an internal advisory committee of experts that the CAH convened and an international consultation process. This led to several related projects in the area of whole-school approaches to health and wellbeing and the health and education interface. 

    Completed projects

    • Policy Review (lead: Kristina Bennett): A review of current guidelines and policies for HPS and similar initiatives in low, middle, and high income countries
    • Evidence Review (lead: Monika Raniti): A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on barriers and enabler to implementation of HPS and similar initiatives in low, middle and high income countries
    • A series of 8 country Case Profiles on HPS implementation in low and middle income countries – Bhutan, Indonesia, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine (lead: Ruth Aston)
    • Development of the new Global Standards and Indicators for HPS (lead: Monika Raniti)
    • Development of an Implementation Guidance for HPS (lead: Ruth Aston)
    • The role of school connectedness in the prevention of youth depression and anxiety: a systematic review with youth consultation (lead: Monika Raniti)

    Ongoing projects

    • A related project, funded through a University of Melbourne India School Education Engagement grant (2020), is a case study of implementation of a school-based health program in Bihar, India (Leads: Susan Sawyer, Sachin Shinde, Monika Raniti)
    • A related project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, on the role of school connectedness in depression and anxiety in young people (lead: Monika Raniti)

    Our Team

    The team is comprised of researchers and practitioners who have a broad interest and expertise in the intersection between health and education (e.g., school health services, health promoting schools, school-based health interventions).

    Lead: Professor Susan Sawyer 
    Postdoctoral Researcher: Dr Monika Raniti
    Public Health and Health Promotion specialist: Ms Kristina Bennett 
    Education and Evaluation specialist: Dr Ruth Aston (Centre for Program Evaluation, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne) 
    Consultant: Ms Cristina de Nicolás Izquierdo

    Communications specialist: Ms Molly O'Sullivan

    Research Assistants

    Ms Ella Cehun 
    Ms Monika Fridgant
    Ms Anna Ross
    Ms Catherine Waters


    Past Volunteers and Interns

    Ms Manon Duay
    Ms Catherine Waters

    Students

    Aneta Bandilovska (Honours student) and Dr Erin Hoare (Masters student)  

    Linked research projects

    • Doctoral Student: Dr Margaretha Margaretha, Use of curriculum in Indonesian schools to advance mental health, (Airlangga University, Indonesia)
    • Post-doctoral Student: Dr Peijin Hu, Evaluation of China’s school preventive health services (Peking University Institute of Child and Adolescent Health)

    Internal Advisory Group 

    Ms Israt Jahan Baki, Dr Helen Butler, Ms Andrea Krelle, Dr Lisa Mundy, Professor George Patton, A/Prof Nicola Reavley, Dr Jenny Proimos, Dr Anitra Wierenga, Dr Sachin Shinde, and Dr Jon Quach

    Collaborators

    • WHO
    • UNESCO
    • University of Melbourne
    • Harvard University and Sangath, India (Dr Sachin Shinde and Professor Vikram Patel)

    Funding

    • WHO
    • The University of Melbourne (India School Education Engagement grant)
    • Handbury Family Trust, MCRI
    • Wellcome Trust

    Making every school a health-promoting school reports

    Making every school a health-promoting school – Global standards and indicators

    Spanish: Hacer que todas las escuelas sean promotoras de la salud. Pautas e indicadores mundiales

    Portuguese: Transformar cada escola em uma escola promotora de saúde: Padrões e indicadores globais

    Making every school a health-promoting school – Implementation Guidance

    Making every school a health-promoting school – Country case studies

    WHO guideline on school health services

    Key publications

    Sawyer, S. M., Raniti, M., & Aston, R. (2021). Making every school a health-promoting school. The Lancet. Child & adolescent health, S2352-4642(21)00190-5. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(21)00190-5

    Raniti, M., Aston, R., Bennett, K., de Nicolás, C., Fridgant, M., Cehun, E., Sawyer, S.M. (2020). Global Standards and Indicators for Health Promoting Schools. Melbourne: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

    Aston, R., Raniti, M., Bennett, K., de Nicolás,  C., Fridgant, M., Cehun, E., Sawyer, S.M. (2020). Global Implementation Guidance for Health Promoting Schools. Melbourne: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

    Bennett, K., Raniti, M., de Nicolás, C., Cehun, E., Waters, C., Fridgant, M., Sawyer, S.M. (2020). A global review of policy, standards and guideline documentation for Health Promoting Schools. Melbourne: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. (in press)

    Raniti, M., Fridgant, M., Ross, A., de Nicolás, C., Bennett, K., Cehun, E., Reavley, N., Sawyer, S.M. (2020). A systematic review of the enablers and barriers of Health Promoting Schools. Melbourne: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. (in press)

    Key presentations

    • March 2020, Global consultation of HPS evidence reviews with WHO and UNESCO external advisory group  
    • July 2020, India School Engagement Grant workshop, University of Melbourne
    • Sept 2020, Professional development session to Mental Health Practitioners in secondary schools for the Victorian Department of Education and Training
    • June 2021, Launch by WHO and UNESCO of Global Standards and Indicators of Health Promoting Schools and Systems
    • July 2021, Global Health Forum, Melbourne Children's Campus

    Media

    Podcast

    MJA Podcasts 2021 Episode 24: Health Promoting Schools, with Prof Susan Sawyer, Dr Monika Raniti and Dr Ruth Aston | Podcast

    Further information

    For further information, please contact Dr Monika Raniti.