Health at school: Supporting the transformations of a changing education system

Résumé 0

Every day, the education system welcomes a fifth of the French population. At critical moments in their development, children and young people spend more than a third of their waking hours in the school environment. The school is a living environment and a privileged place for education; it is thus clearly a public health priority. The aim of a school health policy is to create the conditions (governance, organization, resources, practices) to ensure that, in the country’s sixty thousand schools, pupils benefit from an optimal educational environment and teaching that enables them to develop the health skills that each of them needs to master. Remarkable practices exist at all levels of the education system, but there are obstacles to their widespread application to all schools. A genuine strategy to support change is imperative if the school is to play its full role for all students, especially the most vulnerable.