Evaluating The Implementation of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools in six European countries

This article is based on an evaluation of The Implementation of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS) in six countries carried out by the author and colleagues. It describes key elements of the health‐promoting school concept, the challenge of evaluating an international health promoting school project and selected findings taken from the research. The findings of the research described in this paper focus on two comparative aspects of the health promoting school: first, the formal curriculum and second, the social and physical environments. The research is based on formative evaluation and the methodology is mainly qualitative, using a multi‐focused approach to the data. This research draws on political, social and managerial factors which can influence institutional change in the context of creating a health‐promoting environment in schools.