Summer Newsletter - Living Well Schools

Summer Term Living Well Schools Newsletter

As schools start to break up for the summer holidays, we would like to say a big thank you to all schools and stakeholders who have been part of Living Well Schools in our first year. Our summer newsletter highlights recent events with schools across the district:

Article 1 - FINAL CALL - Secondary School Grants
Article 2 - Bradford Girl Power Project Celebrates Success
Article 3 - Healthy Minds Chartermark Schools Award Ceremony
Article 4 - Living Well – Children and Families Service
Article 5 - Schools Climate Action Event - 6th November
Article 6 - Grow to School and Young Marketeers

FINAL CALL - Secondary School Grants

Living Well Schools is launching in Secondary Schools in September 2025, and to support our launch, grant funding opportunities are open for Secondary Schools. Schools can apply for grants to develop health and wellbeing projects that support core public health aims.

Grant amount: Up to £5,000 per school
Who can apply: All secondary schools and SEND provisions in Bradford District
Deadline: Applications close on 25th July 2025
Apply here: https://forms.office.com/e/BAGGH9wwgV

Secondary School Grants Guidance: please download from here
Get in touch today for support in applying: schools@mylivingwell.co.uk

Bradford Girl Power Project Celebrates Success

See Sporty Be Sporty, led by Natalie, recently hosted a celebratory event for the Bradford Girl Power project. 10 schools from across the Bradford District were invited to come together at City Hall to celebrate the project's impact on empowering and motivating girls in sports.

The event showcased girls' achievements through quality presentations delivered by the Year 5 girls. Every school received a certificate for their amazing work, and the winning school that received the trophy... Knowleswood!

Special thanks to the judging panel, which included representatives from Living Well Schools and a surprise celebrity, former British Champion kickboxer, Harleen Kaur!
The event highlighted the importance of promoting girls' equality in sports and physical activity within schools. Shout out to the school staff involved, girls and Natalie for making the event a success!

To book your school onto cohort 2, please get in touch for more information. Limited spaces available: schools@mylivingwell.co.uk

Healthy Minds Chartermark Event

Bradford schools celebrated for supporting young people’s mental health

Schools across Bradford have been recognised for their commitment to supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing at the annual Healthy Minds Chartermark Schools Award Ceremony.

Held at the Midland Hotel on Monday 1 July, the event celebrated the efforts of schools across the district in promoting inclusion for children with social, emotional and mental health needs through a project currently delivered by the Educational Psychology Team, and funded by Public Health at Bradford Council.

The Healthy Minds Chartermark awards schools silver, gold, or platinum status based on the strength of their whole school approach to mental health support for pupils, staff and families. The highest honour – Beacon School status – was awarded to three schools this year: Park Aspire Alternative Provision Academy, Chellow Heights Special School and Burley Oaks Primary School who demonstrated their ability to measure the impact of their work on pupil wellbeing, but also actively supported the wellbeing of staff.

The first LA nursery schools to join the scheme, Strong Close Nursery School and Hirstwood Nursery School, proudly received silver awards, showing the growing commitment to mental wellbeing across all education settings.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Dr Laura Halliwell, Educational Psychologist, and Jelisa Browne, Assistant Educational Psychologist, who praised schools for their inspiring work in supporting children’s mental health whilst providing the latest research locally and nationally.

Also attending the event was the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Mohammed Shafiq, who congratulated the winners and celebrated the district’s shared commitment to children’s wellbeing.

Award Winners

Silver Awards: Hollingwood Primary, Knowleswood Primary, Lidget Green Primary, Lilycroft Primary, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, St Paul’s CE Primary, St Stephen’s CE Primary, Swainhouse Primary, Green Lane Primary, and finally Bowling Park Primary who refreshed their silver award from 2021.

Gold Awards: Beckfoot Allerton Primary, Farfield Primary, Frizinghall Primary, Grove House Primary, Reevy Hill Primary, Jaamiatul Imaam Muhammad Zakar (JIMZ) Independent School (secondary), Steeton Primary.

Living Well - Children and Families Service

The Children and Families Service has now been delivering support for 3 years and provides district-wide support to children (and their families) who have identified that they want to, and are ready to, make changes to live a healthier life.

Building healthy habits in childhood and adolescence is the beginning of the journey to good health as an adult.

Why is it important to eat well and be physically active?

To have energy to move, play and have fun.

To help our bodies feel and be healthy and strong.

To boost our mood, concentration and focus.

Helps us to have better quality sleep to help us rest and re-energise for the next day.

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The service accepts referrals (including self-referrals) for children living in the Bradford District who are aged 2 to 19 and who are above a healthy weight.

The family are allocated and supported by a health coach trained advisor, who will support, help and encourage the child and family to work towards changes and goals that they have identified.

To find out more about the service, access the children and families service page on the My Living Well website: The Living Well Children and Families Service

Schools Climate Action Event

Bradford Council are hosting a Schools Climate Action Event Thursday 6th November 2025!

A free shared learning event for staff working in Bradford District schools to:

Explore a range of ways to refine your school’s Climate Action Plan, with interactive workshops covering the 4 DfE pillars of climate action
Meet and learn from organisations able to support your schools’ sustainability work at no cost.
Understand how your school’s CAP can contribute to a net-zero Bradford District by 2038
Hear from and be inspired by case studies from schools across Bradford District

To pre-book your free school place(s) maximum of 3, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/BFDClimateAction

Living Well Schools would love to hear about projects linked to climate change, sustainability, or the environment. Whether it’s an Eco Council initiative, a class campaign, or a wild and wonderful idea your children have come up with, we want to hear all about it! This is a fantastic opportunity to join a community of practice and spark inspiration across Bradford. Please fill out the short Microsoft form here.

Grow to School and Young Marketeers

Bradford children sold school-grown produce at the brand-new Darley Street Market!

Children had a brilliant time stepping into the shoes of market traders to sell their school-grown plants and fresh fruit and vegetables to the public and share how they nurtured and prepared their produce for the market, whilst raising money for Bradford Metropolitan Foodbank and even had a visit from The Lord Mayor of Bradford.

This exciting event is part of Living Well’s #GrowWelltoEatWell campaign where the team at Grow to School and School Food Matters have been supporting 15 primary schools to grow (and sell) their own food.

Everyone had such a lovely day, thank you to all those came along, the fantastic teachers for all their hard work and amazing partnership working.

Links for further information:

Watch a great short video from the day here:
https://mylivingwell.co.uk/news-post/bradford-schools-grow-well-to-eat-well/

For more information on Grow to School:
https://www.growtoschool.co.uk/the-growbag-toolkit/

For more information on School Food Matters:
https://www.schoolfoodmatters.org/

For more information on Living Well’s Grow Well to Eat Well Campaign:
https://mylivingwell.co.uk/campaigns/grow-well-to-eat-well/