Food and Nutrition
At St Matthew's Primary School Hastings, we promote a healthy lifestyle to our community – students, staff, and families – as part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive school environment and to the National Administration Guidelines.
Educating students about nutrition and encouraging healthy active learning contributes to their personal success and wellbeing, and to a healthier community for everyone.
Our school follows food safety guidelines.
Promoting a healthy food and drink environment
A healthy food and drink environment helps support a young person's wellbeing (hauora), including their immediate physical and mental growth and development. It also helps establish positive behaviours for the future.
At St Matthew's Primary School Hastings, we:
- ensure that any food or drink provided by/through school (e.g. in class or sold at school) aligns with any national food and nutrition guidelines, such as the Ministry of Health's Healthy Food and Drink Guidance – Schools
- incorporate nutrition education across the curriculum, including the health programme
- provide water and milk (from the Milk for Schools programme) as the only drink options for students
- encourage staff members to model healthy food and drink choices
- communicate our nutrition messages to the wider school community clearly and consistently in various ways
- acknowledge the diversity of our community and consider those with special dietary needs (including allergies and intolerances) with our nutrition messages and food provided or sold at school
- consider our nutrition messages when deciding on class rewards and celebrations, student prizes, special events, fundraising activities, and school camp menus
- actively promote physical activity as the partner of good nutrition
- encourage students taking part in physical activity (e.g. school sports teams, athletics groups) to drink water for hydration and to refuel with healthy snacks.
Staff Wellbeing
As part of our commitment to health and safety, we value the wellbeing (hauora) of our staff and aim to create a safe physical and emotional environment that creates a positive, inclusive culture for both students and staff and supports effective teaching and learning.
The school monitors the health of workers as part of its primary duty of care and discusses workload and stress levels at health and safety meetings and during professional conversations. Free counselling is available for many New Zealand teachers through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), or through a general practitioner (GP).
At St Matthew's Primary School Hastings:
- we provide appropriate induction and professional guidance
- we recognise stress in the workplace as a hazard to be managed
- workplace harassment or bullying is unacceptable
- staff may request access to professional development and mentoring, as required, to increase competency and confidence and reduce stress
- staff may request leave as required
- staff may apply for flexible working arrangements to be considered
- in the case of injury or illness, we recognise support and rehabilitation as an important part of our safety management system
- when a staff member is made aware that they are the subject of a concern or complaint raised by a member of the school community, they are informed about the concerns and complaints process and are offered appropriate support
- if a staff member is involved in a confrontation with a student (physical or verbal), they are offered support appropriate to the situation, which may include an incident debriefing
- if a staff member becomes aware that a colleague is at risk of self-harm or suicide, they consult with senior staff. In the case of the imminent threat of suicide of a staff member, we ensure the person's immediate safety and ring 111 or the regional mental health services crisis assessment team .
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