Habit changing health homework programme rolled out to 25% more schools nationwide - super news for Super Troopers as
programme goes from strength to strength
Almost 200,000 children taking part
Enhanced wellbeing and nutrition activities
Official healthy eating partner introduced
Wednesday, 28th September 2016: Now in its third year, Super Troopers with Laya Healthcare is being rolled out to the highest number of primary schools to date nationwide. For the coming school year 1,250 primary schools and almost 200,000 children will complete the enhanced Super Troopers health homework programme which aims to encourage more physical activity and healthy eating in children, parents and teachers.
This is a 25% increase in participation from the previous school year during which 1,000 schools nationwide took part in the programme. The 2016/17 health homework programme was officially launched this morning with Johnny Sexton, Irish International and Leinster Rugby fly-half and Seán Cavanagh, Captain Tyrone GAA Senior Football team.
Ireland’s first health homework programme, Super Troopers encourages children and their families to have a positive attitude towards physical activity, wellbeing and nutrition and aims to change practical lifestyle habits to help children and families lead healthy lifestyles. The programme has been developed with educational specialists Real Nation alongside experts in physical activity, nutrition, education, well-being and psychology. The health homework programme gives equal prominence to health as is given to academic subjects and includes short burst, fun activities that can involve all the family. This year, the wellbeing and nutrition elements of the programme have been enhanced to ensure children focus on a healthy mind and a healthy body, with the introduction of new activities on emotions, mindfulness and meditation.
“We’re very proud of the success of Super Troopers over the past two years, and we’re delighted to have almost 200,000 children participate in the enhanced programme this year. At laya healthcare we believe that a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body and we’ve introduced some wonderful activities to encourage the children to focus on their feelings and wellbeing. We’re also delighted to welcome SuperValu on board as official healthy eating partner to Super Troopers. With SuperValu’s focus on getting Ireland cooking and eating together it seems a natural fit for our programme.” said Lorraine Walsh Head of Marketing at laya healthcare.
Commenting on the partnership Ray Kelly, Marketing Director at SuperValu said “As the leading Irish retailer we are delighted to partner with laya healthcare to become the official healthy eating partner to Super Troopers. The programme is a fantastic initiative to improve the health and wellbeing of children and families across Ireland and the success to date speaks for itself. At SuperValu we are taking on healthy eating with a particular focus on getting families cooking. It is our vision to grow a generation healthier than the last. By partnering with Super Troopers we want to get Ireland’s children to pay attention to what they eat through cooking, and in doing so, we will help make Ireland’s children healthier.”
The Super Troopers programme is delivered through Activity Journals for each child, Family Wall Charts to keep track of their progress and information letters for parents and teachers on the programme.
“When we asked teachers what they thought of the programme, we received glowing grades. Nearly three quarters of the teachers we spoke with said that Super Troopers encouraged an increase in the children’s daily activity levels and integrated well with the PE curriculum, while 86% said they would recommend it to other teachers,” said Lorraine Walsh.
“Parents were also extremely positive towards Super Troopers; 94% said they enjoyed taking part in the activities with their children. Eighty-five per cent of parents said that Super Troopers resulted in increased activity at home for their children.
Key to the success of Super Troopers is that it is not based on how fit or able a child is; it’s about participating and having fun while learning. We hope that it sets the foundations for a whole generation of healthy habits in the future,” continued Lorraine Walsh.
Visit www.supertroopers.ie for lots of ideas and tips on physical activity and wellbeing activities; as well as some tasty and healthy recipes for all the family.