In mid-May 1992, the Voivodeship Health Promotion Team visited me. After hearing about what we did every day and seeing the sanitary and premises-related conditions, they invited me to join the team of “Health-Promoting Schools” in the voivodeship.
I was asked about the mid-morning meal at school. There were 10 minutes until the long break. I invited the entire committee to Class II. The committee members were delighted. I was given the “School of Health” report, which is directly connected with the “Health for All by the Year 2000” programme initiated by WHO.
Using the parents’ contributions fund, I subscribed to the “Lider” magazine and, “taking baby steps” myself, tried to infect everyone with the drive to promote health at school.
A “health promotion” team was established in our voivodeship, coordinated on behalf of the Education Office by J. Cięciwa, MA.
Every month, meetings of all the school principals implementing the programme were held at a different school. Through trial and error, using our own examples, we learned how to implement the programme. As a biologist, seeing health-promoting activities at school every day, I combined two goals of the school’s educational and instructional work: ecology and health.
For the programme to be implemented properly, local governments must also become involved. I arranged a meeting with the Head of Bolesławiec Municipality. After listening to me, at my request he instructed the Director of GZEAS to renovate the kitchen and provided funds to purchase a kitchen range and a gas cylinder. With the money saved—by purchasing the range from a wholesaler, I saved 1 million zlotys—I bought kitchen equipment.
As of 9 November 1993, after a two-year break, the entire student community once again sat down for mid-morning meals with hot drinks: milk and tea with lemon, as requested by the students. Once again, the long break is quiet and peaceful. There is an atmosphere of relaxation and eating.
The students sit at tables with colourful napkins, wash their hands in warm water (there are washbasins in the classrooms), and dry them with disposable towels.
The cleaning staff use only “eco” buckets with an environmentally friendly cleaning liquid, taking care to keep the rooms clean. The school is clean and fragrant. Products worthy of a health-promoting school are used: no detergents.
The motto of our school is “our school, our class – healthy and green.” Some classrooms have spider plants, ferns, geraniums, violets, and so on. The students know how to cultivate them, and it is truly green and healthy. Recently, P. Maria Dolik from a hairdressing salon gave us some healthy, interesting potted plants, while the parents from the School Council have been giving us rare potted plants for Teacher’s Day for several years. This year it was a flowering anthurium.
I could do very little at school במסגרת the “health-promoting school” programme if not for the parents and the school’s allies, who support us every day.
The School Council has organised income-generating events and a New Year’s Eve ball for many years, depositing the money earned at these events into the school fund account and supplementing the parents’ contributions. In the 1992/93 school year, for the New Year’s tree celebration and Children’s Day, the children received refreshments consisting of oranges, bananas, and natural fruit juices from “Hortex”.
For its activities during the first year of health promotion, the school received 3 million zlotys. The School Council provided an additional 3.5 million zlotys, making it possible to buy the long-awaited VCR. To be continued.