Living Well Schools Easter Newsletter
Article 1: Children & Families New 6-week Programme
Article 2: National Year of Reading 2026
Article 3: Meet the Team
Article 4: Staff CPD - Understanding Forced Migration
Article 5: Bradford Pupil Voice Sustainability Summit 2026
Article 6: Eat Them to Defeat Them 2026
Article 7: Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Poverty Report
Article 8: JU:MP Schools: Supporting Children to be Active in Schools across Bradford
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Children & Families New 6-week Programme
Schools can now host a ‘6-week healthy lifestyle programme’ for families, focusing on moving more, eating well, sleep hygiene and screen time.
The Living Well Children and Families service have some exciting changes and are offering a ‘6-week healthy lifestyle programme’ to schools. Your school can book 6 sessions where the Children and Families team work with KS2 children (mainly) and involving their parents/carers in a group family session. These sessions are interactive and as fun as possible whilst focusing on:
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Week 1: Intro and physical activity (pt 1)
Week 2: Physical activity (pt 2) and screen time
Week 3: Food groups and what they mean
Week 4: Food labels and portion sizes
Week 5: Snacking and lunch boxes
Week 6: Sleep, wrap-up and certificates
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If you are interested in discussing this offer further please:
National Year of Reading 2026
Whatever you're into, read into it
Everyone knows reading expands worlds, sharpens minds, and fuels creativity. But fewer of us are making time for it.
In 2026, the National Year of Reading is reconnecting reading with the things that already inspire us – from playlists and football matches to films, food and family time. Reading goes beyond books. It includes comics, newspapers, graphic novels, audiobooks and digital content on phones and tablets. It’s reading that fits how we live, not the other way around.
 Kicking off in January, the National Year of Reading runs throughout 2026, with each term offering new ways to take part. From launch events to classroom activities, online webinars and partner resources, every stage is linked to the education pathways: Early Years, Primary and Secondary. That means it’s easy to find what’s relevant for your setting, and to adapt ideas to fit your classroom and timetable.
We’ve gathered the best tools, guides and free resources to help you plan, deliver and celebrate reading across the school year. Whether you’re leading literacy or looking for ready-to-use classroom ideas, everything you need to Go All In is here.
Meet the Team
Charlotte joins the Living Well Schools team
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Hi! I’m Charlotte, and I’m working with the Living Well Schools team to look at how we can support schools with providing second-hand school resources. Providing second-hand school resources, including uniform and equipment, has benefits for families on low incomes as well as sustainability outcomes.
NEW guideline alert — I’m sure you’re already familiar with the new DfE guidance, and we’d love to understand how we can best support you in meeting them. Our aim is to shine a
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light on the great work already happening, and to offer help wherever the guidelines might feel like additional pressure or extra tasks.
If your school is already doing something in this space, we are looking for case studies! If you would like to share, or would like to have a conversation around what your school can put in place, please contact charlotte.hemingway21@bradford.gov.uk.
Staff CPD - Understanding Forced Migration
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Register for upcoming staff CPD and view previous sessions on our new You Tube channel |
Join our upcoming staff CPD session on 'Understanding Forced Migration and Building Cultures of Welcome'. This provides international, national and local context through the stories of migrants to help understand why people are forced to flee and seek safety elsewhere. The session also considers the challenges faced by children and young people, and highlights the vital role schools play in creating welcoming, safe and inclusive environments for all.
Feedback on the training from other Bradford schools:
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‘Thank you for the training this evening at Carlton Bolling, it genuinely was fascinating and really meaningful. It gave an overall picture of the current situation around migration and how to be kind and aware of issues facing some people seeking sanctuary in our community and beyond. ’ Teacher, Carlton Bolling
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‘The most helpful thing I learnt was where to access further resources to support refugee pupils and some of the challenges children face in school.’ Teacher, Lilycroft Primary
After successfully launching free staff CPD for all school staff across Bradford District, we have brought together a library of recordings from previous sessions. If you hoped to attend any of our previous staff CPD sessions but missed out, you can now view them on our new You Tube channel using the links below:
Bradford Pupil Voice Sustainability Summit 2026
Save the date!
Following the success of last year’s Eco Summit, where we supported school leaders to write and refine their climate action plans, we are now planning to host the Bradford Pupil Voice Sustainability Summit, designed for KS2, KS3 and KS4 pupils.
 What to expect:
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Showcase & Share: Pupils will hear about sustainability initiatives happening in other schools and every school will have the opportunity to present or perform their own nature/eco projects, campaigns, and achievements - the more creative the presentation, the better!
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Discover Support & Resources: We will introduce pupils and staff to national climate action programmes, resources, and frameworks designed to help embed sustainability across the school.
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Explore Future Pathways: Pupils will be able to connect school subjects and their sustainability interests to future skills, training pathways, and careers, with insights into the growing opportunities in green jobs across Bradford and the wider region.
and official invites will be arriving in your inbox soon!
Eat Them to Defeat Them 2026
Encouraging children to eat more veg by making it fun!
Living Well Schools teamed up with Veg Power to offer their multi-award-winning Eat Them to Defeat Them 2026 campaign to schools in Bradford. The programme encourages children to eat more vegetables by making it fun and returned for an eighth year this March. Participating schools received lesson plans, activities, caterers support and take-home resources for all pupils and their families. |
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27 primary schools and 1 nursery took part in this national campaign throughout March, reaching 9,084 pupils across Bradford District, from Tong to Keighley West!
As the campaign has come to an end, we need support from schools to please ask parents and carers to complete the Bradford Eat Them to Defeat Them 2026 feedback survey which is live until Thursday 30th April 2026 – the survey link was emailed directly to all schools that took part.
With left over funding and additional costs covered by Veg Power, 15 classes across 7 schools also received Veg Powers Growing to Love 2026 kits to start growing their own tomatoes after the Easter holidays.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Poverty Report
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is a charity that conducts and funds research aimed at solving poverty in the UK.
In the latest report, it was found that more than 1 in 5 people in the UK (21%) were in poverty in 2023/24 — 14.2 million people. Of these, 7.9 million were working-age adults and 4.5 million were children. To put it another way, around 2 in every 10 working-age adults are in poverty in the UK, with about 3 in every 10 children being in poverty.
In Bradford 19.8% of the District's households are in fuel poverty.
40% of children are living below the poverty line.
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Schools can use (for free) our Living Well School Toolkits – Click here for more information - Poverty - Living Well Schools Bradford
As well as the toolkits schools can also access our free Living Well Schools Poverty Workshop – Use the link below for more information.
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JU:MP Schools: Supporting Children to be Active in Schools across Bradford
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In the UK, less than 40% of children achieve 30 minutes of moderate-to-physical activity in school time. This is despite children spending more than 55% of their waking hours at school. |
JU:MP Schools aims to support schools across Bradford to use the Creating Active Schools programme to review their whole-school physical activity provision, plan for change according to their priorities and identified needs, implement appropriate and feasible initiatives that support all children to be active across the whole-school day, and monitor and evaluate their effects.
In addition, JU:MP Schools offers opportunities to connect with your local community providers and settings and schools across Bradford to share learning, develop solutions, and see change in practice. By engaging in this approach, schools have reported shifts in thinking regarding taking smaller steps to achieve embedded change. |
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This has led to significant improvements in whole-school physical activity provision, staff behaviours to implement and embed physical activity into normal practice, and increased pupil physical activity across the school day.
By making these small, impactful changes, you could support your pupils physical, cognitive, and social development. All of which, has shown can improve the health, academic, attendance, and behavioural outcomes in your school.
JU:MP’s latest newsletter
The Creating Active Schools Programme: www.creatingactiveschools.org
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