A physical education

Should schools monitor their students' health?

Ralph Surman
Teacher, Nottinghamshire

Yes, without question. Poor health is an indicator of social deprivation, and if young people are suffering from ill health their educational achievement is likely to be lower. That's the crux. If you stand our choir alongside the choir from a school a couple of miles away, the difference in height is amazing: their pupils are so much bigger. I've seen parents who have admitted they have never cooked a meal for their kids; I'm not joking and it horrifies me. The partnership between education and health has been set in stone since time immemorial. The grey area lies with tacking social aspects on to schools' responsibilities. Are those priority areas or governmental and political agendas? This should be heavily debated.

Fiona Barnett
Parent, Surrey

Yes, purely for the fact that not all children are given that at home. Schools can aid in promoting a healthy way of life, through healthy lunches, exercise and education. Screening at school, especially when it comes to weight issues, needs to be dealt with sensitively. Children can pick up on the stigma of being overweight and that could lead to eating disorders. I would like to think that all teachers go into their jobs to promote good ways in children generally: not just their ABCs and overall education. But at the end of the day, it comes down to parents - if they're sticking a ready meal in the oven or grabbing a takeaway, it's not going to work. Schools are trying to do their best, but health visitors should also be coming in on a more regular basis, particularly for pre-school children.

Claire Dannatt
Aged 17, London

Yes and no. Schools are the only body to have contact with all children and the accessibility to monitor students. In an ideal world, it would be the parents but, given rising obesity and other issues, you can't rely on parents alone so you need to find someone, and schools seem to be the obvious body. But there's too much pressure on them to carry out multiple roles within society, from educators to social workers to healthcarers - so if it's accepted that schools should be responsible for monitoring health, they should be given adequate resources and staff who can fulfil that role.

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