A new website promoting healthy living for children has launched.

Healthy Schools is an online resource for teachers and health practitioners who help support the health and wellbeing of nursery and primary-aged children.

The site was developed by Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

The Healthy Schools approach has two main elements – to support health education within the Scottish curriculum and to support families to engage with community-based health and wellbeing services.

The schools element supports pupils’ health and wellbeing by giving teachers a simple framework to plan, monitor and evaluate health and wellbeing education.

The community part provides a focal point for a range of multi-agency partners that deliver a broad range of after-school or community-based health and wellbeing services. They can engage with schools and each other to align these services with the curriculum.

The goal is to enable a consistent and joined-up approach to supporting children and families to live longer, healthier lives.

Gabe Docherty, area health promotion manager for NHS Lanarkshire, said: “Healthy Schools is an innovative initiative that enables everyone involved in promoting health and wellbeing in Lanarkshire to channel our efforts towards achieving the same goal with greater impact.

“As a result, young people in Lanarkshire will have the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to lead healthier, more active lives.”

In addition, Lanarkshire’s Health Promotion Library has been re-launched with a new online ordering system. The library lends a wide range of free health materials, including books, leaflets, teaching kits, displays, models, games, DVDs and equipment, to anyone living or working in Lanarkshire.

Visit www.hpac.nhs.uk for the library and www.healthyschools.scot for Healthy Schools.