The health‐promoting school in Wales: an overview

This paper charts the progress of the health‐promoting school concept in Wales from a pilot project to a key component of mainstream health‐promotion activity. The paper particularly focuses on Wales’ participation in the European Network of Health‐Promoting Schools and on the current initiative, the Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes. It also identifies the key lessons learned from the work in Wales, including the need to gain the support of the schools’ senior management, to appoint an enthusiastic school co‐ordinator and to plan clearly a limited number of actions, with achievable timescales.