School Health in Europe for Active and Healthy Ageing

The SHE4AHA project was developed to meet a clear and urgent need: to strengthen the role of schools in promoting health, well-being, and inclusion — not only as isolated initiatives, but as part of structured and sustainable school development. Many schools across Europe recognize the importance of health promotion but lack accessible tools, training, and policy support to implement the Health Promoting School (HPS) framework in practice. At the same time, rising concerns about mental health, stress, and social exclusion among pupils highlight the need for early, school-based interventions. By linking school health promotion to the European Green Paper on Ageing, SHE4AHA demonstrates how strengthening health from an early age contributes to lifelong well-being and active ageing. In short, we applied for this project to provide schools with the tools and support they need to work strategically with health promotion, to show its broader value for inclusive education, health equity, and future public health outcomes, and to provide the Commission with evidence and tools to promote the the HPS approach as an answer to implement the Green Paper on Ageing.

The main objective of the SHE4AHA project was to demonstrate how the Health Promoting School (HPS) framework can be used as a practical, evidence-based approach to improve pupil well-being, inclusion, and long-term health – and to show how schools can contribute to the EU’s vision for active and healthy ageing. Specifically, the project aimed to: 1. Build capacity among school staff and leaders to work strategically with health promotion through accessible training and tools. 2. Support 15 pilot schools in five countries in designing and implementing local HPS initiatives, tailored to their own needs and contexts. 3. Develop and test practical resources, including a user-friendly HPS guide ("Pixi manual"), a planning and self-assessment checklist, and a modular training package. 4. Document and share good practices from the pilot schools to inspire other schools and support future implementation. 5. Promote policy dialogue at local, national and EU levels by providing clear recommendations on how to integrate health promotion into education systems. 6. Link school-based health promotion to lifelong well-being, positioning early intervention in schools as a contribution to broader goals such as healthy aging.

In the development phase, the partnership developed the Health Promoting School Guide, that is inspired by the SHE manual and has been developed as a kind of "pixie version" to make it more accessible for the schools. In the testing and implementation phase, all partners worked closely with the 15 pilot schools to provide training, assisting the schools to work actively with the guide and implement local pilot projects. Based on this collaboration, a substantial evaluation exercise was executed, involving both the partners, school leaders, school teachers and pupils. In the evaluation exercise we focused on all aspects of the project such as; the quality and relevance of the HPS guide, the training material, the training sessions and the concrete work within the schools, looking into barriers and promoting factors to work with HP. In the conceptualisation phase we have used all the knowledge and information from the testing phase to; fine-tune the HP guide and the training material, gather and prepare good practice stories, implementation and policy recommendations and develop a learning platform. All partners have organised local mulitplier events as well as a European multiplier event in Brussels.

The concrete outputs of the SHE4AHA project are the following; - The Health Promoting School guide (ENG, DA, FR, PT, ICE and SLO) - Training material to 14 concrete training subjects being relevant for the health promoting school approach - Health Promoting School Checklists - Pilot projects implemented in 15 pilot schools - Capacity building on different levels in all participating 15 pilot schools and awareness about the importance, relevance and possibilities to work with health promotion, close to everyday challenges and an understanding of the return on investment. - Implementation and Evaluation Report - Good practice catalogue gathering a description of the pilot projects and the work to become a health promoting school seen from the schools perspective - Implementation and policy Recommendation Report - Local and European articles, abstracts and participation in European conferences - A local multiplier event in each participating country - European mulitiplier event in Brussels gathering relevant European NGOs, interest organisations and policy makers - An easyly accessible and open access learning platform that can be visited on www.healththroughoutlife.eu