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Healthy Eating
Coordinators (HEC) Program
We believe that
basic healthy eating is the foundation to good health and to support this
we want to make it easier to know how to eat health.
Our aim is to place a Healthy
Eating Coordinator (HEC) in every school across Australia. HEC's will
be the fountain of knowledge on anything healthy eating, providing canteen
reviews and support, tips and tip sheets on nutrition for parents,
students and staff as well as guidance on how to eat better.
Students, parents and staff will gain the tools to choose healthy foods,
be more active and consequently have more energy, better concentration and
experience better performance.
First pilot a
huge success
We are very proud to announce
that Jennifer Dowling from St
Lukes Grammar (Dee Why), Kath Fogwell from Our Lady of Good Counsel (Frenchs Forest)
and Louise Hodgeson from Manly Village Public School have completed our pilot program
and are now actively working as HECs for their schools.
We are currently organising our second
round of training for the latter half of 2008. While we are focusing
on schools in Sydney we will soon be allocating trainers to work further a
field and interstate. If you would like to know more about this
project, or think your school may be interested you can register your
interest online now.
We are in the early
stages of this program but have already received extremely enthusiastic
interest from schools and parents.
View
Manly Daily article
About the HEC program
The HEC program is a revolutionary program that involves training a staff
member to be an in-house healthy eating coordinator. Uniquely this
program does not seek to ‘reinvent the wheel’; rather it uses the
extensive resources and programs already produced by government agencies.
HECs are intensively trained on the fundaments of nutrition so that they
are able to use resources to influence the health of the entire school
community.
HECs are involved in curriculum, canteen, information provision,
mentoring, sporting and other school teams, and in supporting students,
teachers and parents in healthy lifestyles.
Who will be
required?
We will be
recruiting/sourcing:
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Schools: Currently
we are receiving numerous expressions of interest from schools in NSW,
Queensland and Victoria and are hoping this will continue. Once the
program has been finalised will actively seek out schools nationwide.
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HEIs will
ideally be teachers or highly involved parents from the interested school.
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Trainers will
require relevant health or nutrition qualifications and insurance and have
a keen interest in childhood nutrition and health. It would also be
ideal if they have relevant VETAB training qualifications.
-
Resources:
We already extensive source resources from many State and Federal health
agencies regarding nutrition and are constantly seeking to gain more in
order to bring together these valuable tools, we welcome all enquiries
regarding this.
-
Organisations:
There are hundreds of fabulous companies who make very healthy foods and
products for children, some have already contacted us, many of which are
included in canteen stockist lists; involvement will require careful
consider of guidelines and will announced at a later date.
HECs (for legal reasons this person
must be a teacher ideally in the PDPHE department or with an interest in
health) will be trained to:
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Conduct canteen
reviews, action plans and canteen staff training.
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Gather newly released
global and national health and nutrition information and reports.
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Provide personal
healthy eating sessions with students, staff and parents.
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Review nutrition
curriculum.
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Provide nutrition
tips for all school meetings, newsletters and websites.
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Give product and
marketing message news flashes.
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Offer sports
nutrition support.
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Host guest talks on
topical nutrition or dietary concerns.
HECs are not
nutritionists or dietitians their focus is healthy eating principals.
Trainers (will be required to hold a
tertiary qualification in health or related) will:
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Carry out a two day training program
in a small group of five HECs on at a nominated school.
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Educate HECs in the
principals of healthy eating and good nutrition using known healthy eating
guidelines.
-
Continue to support
HECs throughout their role.
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Conduct update
sessions with current HECs.
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Follow-up with HECs
and support HECs in their objectives.
Application details for
schools
Cadence Health invites schools to register their interest in participating
in the Healthy Eating Coordinators program. Parents, teachers, parents
associations and school staff are welcome to submit this application to
their school to encourage involvement.
Applications and registration
All schools may apply and funding
options are noted in the application. We are currently rolling the
program out across Sydney, however we are in the process of initiating the
program across Victoria and Queensland and other States and Territories
will follow. Training is done in clusters of five schools/HECs.
Schools can create their own cluster or register individually and we will
assign you a local cluster.
Download an
application details (includes registration forms) for your school.
Supporting information for
possible HECs in your school
Use this form to provide to your
prospective HEC teacher to ensure they understand what it means to be an
HEC.
Download prospective HEC details
Draft job descriptions are now
available, please keep in mind that these are drafts and the role of an
HEC is very flexible. It is best to fit the specific HEC role to the
actual school culture and needs.
Download a draft HEC job description
Proposal Packs
If you would like Cadence Health to
create an individual proposal for your school please contact the office
and we will organise a proposal pack to be forwarded.
Email
or telephone
02 9949 5712
Partnerships
If you wish to discuss a
partnership with Cadence Health to assist implementing this program
nationally please contact Emma Donnan (project manager) or Leanne Cooper (email
or by phone on 02 9949 5712).
Want to know more?
If you would like
your school to be advised of the program or just like to know more about
what is involved, how to become an HEC, or how we are progressing, simply
complete our online
enquiry form.....>>
We will contact you
in due course, don't worry if you don't hear from us straight away by
completing the online form you will be added to our database.
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