Healthy Schools Newsletter for Educators
From Hastings Prince Edward Public Health

December 2022

 In this Issue:

Welcome to the December HPEPH Healthy Schools Newsletter!

We invite you to encourage your colleagues to subscribe to this newsletter to receive up-to-date and timely information from HPEPH.

Happy Holidays from HPEPH!

This holiday season, the team at public health would like to express gratitude, and appreciation for the hard work and dedication shown by all of you, our local educators, bus drivers, support staff, and other education partners. As you are well aware, schools are one of the most important factors to protect the health and well-being of students and their families. Your ongoing efforts have helped ensure that local students have been able to engage in meaningful and supportive learning.

As another challenging year draws to a close, we thank you, educators and education partners! You are truly making a difference and improving the lives of students and families. We sincerely wish you a wonderful, safe, and well-deserved holiday season. We encourage you to take steps now to ensure both you and your loved ones remain as healthy as possible this holiday season. This year, our community is experiencing unprecedented rates of visits to the Emergency Department and hospitalization related to respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. Rates are especially high among children, reinforcing the importance of taking steps now to reduce the risk of illness throughout the holiday season.

Wondering what you can do to avoid spreading colds, the flu, and COVID-19?

  • If you are overdue for a COVID-19 vaccine, or haven’t received your annual flu vaccine, don’t wait. Get vaccinated now for maximum protection over the holidays.
  • Wear a mask when in crowded, indoor public settings, even if you don’t have symptoms.
  • Clean your hands and high touch surfaces often. This is especially important to reduce the spread of influenza and RSV.
  • Stay home if you have symptoms, even if they are mild. Wear a mask when recovering.

More information about vaccinations:

We sincerely wish you a restful and joyful holiday season.Our team looks forward to continuing to work together in the new year and beyond.

-HPEPH Healthy Schools Team

Digital Citizenship and Staying Safe Online

Online media literacy and digital citizenship are important skills to help keep students safe online. Here are some resources to support your teaching of digital citizenship to students from K-12. These resources can help students to gain the knowledge and tools about how they should behave online and help them to understand balancing screen time activities for their well-being.

School staff and education resources

  1. Stay in the Path: Teaching Kids to be Safe and Ethical Online (Media Smarts) – provides lesson plans for Grade 5 – 8 and resources for students and parents.
     
  2. Ophea Internet safety lesson plans – here are a few highlights of what’s available, create a free Ophea account to access:
    • How can I Respond Safely to Cyberbullying? (Grade 4)
    • The Power of Positive Responses (Grade 5)
    • Building Respectful, Accepting, and Inclusive Online Communities (Grade 6)
       
  3. My Voice is Louder Than Hate (Media Smarts) – multimedia lesson resource designed to empower students in Grades 9-12 to push back against hate and prejudice in their online communities.
     
  4. Digital Literacy Training Program for Canadian Educators (Media Smarts) – provides an overview of essential digital literacy skills and key concepts of media and digital literacy and introduces resources from Media Smarts. These are 2-3 hours self-directed tutorials, available for Grades K-12, K-6, 7-12.

For more curriculum supports, visit our Digital Citizenship resources for Educators page.

Home school connection resources

  1. Family Online Rules – tip sheet (Media Smarts) – outlines ideas for a family agreement or set of rules for using the Internet, a chance for parents and kids to work together on how to be safe, wise and responsible online.
     
  2. Parents’ Guide to Cyberbullying (Media Smarts) – answers to parents most common questions: how common is cyberbullying? How do I know if my child is being cyberbullied? What should I do if my child is targeted? 
     
  3. Seven ways to use social media to benefit your mental health (CMHA)
     
  4. 101 Screen-Free Activities for families at home, outdoors, around town, on the move, in your community and with the kids.

Suggested social media and newsletter inserts

2021-2022 Healthy Schools Annual Report

Over the past year, HPEPH has been working in partnership with Hastings Prince Edward District School Board and Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic District School Board to support the health and well-being of school age children and youth. In June 2022, HPEPH reached out to school administrators to get feedback on the Healthy Schools Program. This feedback was used along with other indicators to create the Healthy Schools Annual Report 2021-2022. Each year HPEPH will continue to seek your feedback so we can better serve staff, students, families and the whole school community.

The Healthy Schools Team is looking forward to continuing to offer health promotion and clinical services in schools. Reach out to your Healthy Schools Team this winter to start implementing the Healthy Schools Toolkit. We are available to attend school events, orientation and parent teacher nights to engage with parents and families.

We encourage you to check out the 2021-2022 Healthy Schools Annual Report, to learn more about the work underway in schools across the region, and the opportunities available for HPEPH to support healthy school communities!
 

Encourage your colleagues to subscribe to receive our monthly newsletter and receive updated resources and information directly from HPEPH. HPEPH will also provide updated resources directly to school administrators for distribution to staff before the return to school.

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Contact Information: 

To give us your comments about this e-newsletter: healthyschools@hpeph.ca

For other questions about Healthy Schools: healthyschools@hpeph.ca

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is situated and provides services on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee people.

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