Only water at Levin School
Levin School is one of the latest schools in Horowhenua to ditch the sugary drinks and promote ‘water only’ in school.
The Water Only campaign, run by MidCentral District Health Board’s public health and child adolescent oral health teams and the Heart Foundation, provides schools with a tool kit to make it easy for schools to take gradual steps toward phasing out sugary, unhealthy drinks.
Tokomaru School has also signed up to Water Only.
MDHB’s health promoting schools advisor, Emma Williams said children need to be well hydrated to keep healthy and focused at school.
“Choosing water only ensures students are staying hydrated, while preventing the negative health impacts that come with drinks like fizzy or juice, such as tooth decay, weight gain or loss of focus in the classroom.”
The daily sugar intake for a child is recommended to be no more than five teaspoons of added sugar. A single 600ml bottle of fizzy can have around 16 teaspoons of added sugar.
Levin School principal Paddy Sannazzaro said it’s early days for the school being water only, but the students had really embraced the concept.
“I’ve already had one six-year-old boasting about how they have healthy water in their drink bottle.
“We’ve worked closely with the school community to keep them informed during this process and we had a lot of support, resulting in our Board of Trustees adopting the water only policy in February.
“There are really clear health benefits from being water only and we look forward to seeing these in our students over the coming months.”
Schools wanting to know more about becoming Water Only can check out the DHB’s toolkit on www.midcentraldhb.govt.nz or ring the Public Health team on (06) 350-9110.