ABSTRACT
Health education has always been an integral element of state education in this country, from Victorian times schools subscribed to the philosophy of a ‘healthy mind in a healthy body’ and there was great emphasis on personal hygiene and physical training. School reflected society’s concerns about public health and the rising power of a working class which believed that access to education, adequate housing, public facilities and medical services contributed to the health of the nation. Subsequent legislation and social changes have meant that different concerns and issues have become health-education priorities but the school is still seen by many as a key place where the problems facing the health of the nation should be addressed. This has led to the growth in the numbers of professionals who are in some way concerned with the health of young people and their families, from school nurses whose priorities are too often dismissed as ‘teeth, nits and naughty bits’ to directors of public health who believe that schools’ main aim should be to address health education at the expense of all else in the curriculum. Somewhere in the middle lies the school and the individual primary-school teacher who may have to deliver all of the National Curriculum, which includes elements of health education, as well as addressing many of society’s concerns about issues ranging from HIV/ AIDS to poor diet. All this must be done often without any initial training, little appropriate in-service training or ongoing support. In respect of the latter, the work of the Health Education Authority in general and its Primary School Project in particular merit commendation (Williams, Wetton and Moon, 1989a; 1989b).
