It was the start of a new school term for many and here at LifeLab we have hit the ground running.
This week saw us ‘bookended’ by government visits. Today we had the pleasure of showing public health minister Steve Brine MP around the purpose-built LifeLab facility.
He was keen to find out abut how Early LifeLab – the part of the project aimed at primary schoolchildren- can help deliver on the government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy.
Mr Brine was shown around the education space at University Hospital Southampton that is primarily used by secondary school pupils on their visit days, and talked through how the project is tailored towards a younger audience using a range of engaging and hands-on resources.
One of the aims of Early LifeLab is to engage children in understanding health messages and encouraging them to think about the choices they are making in their own lives. Mr Brine’s visit came during Obesity AwarenessWeek, a national campaign aimed at highlighting the issue and showcase projects, like LifeLab that are trying to tackle it.
We kicked off the week in similar parliamentary fashion, welcoming a delegation from overseas.
Alongside a bumper cohort of Cantell pupils visiting our purpose-built facility we also had the pleasure of hosting a delegation from the Republic of Ireland government.
The party included Professor Donal O’Shea from the University College Dublin; Professor Catherine Woods, Chair of Physical Activity and Health at University of Limerick; Dr Kwok, a post-doctoral fellow along with Dr Fiona Manseragh from the Department of Health and Dr Kevin McCarthy from the Department of Education.
The purpose of their visit was to see first-hand our state of the art facilities and how the LifeLab project was engaging with schools to promote healthy life choices in an effort to help tackle the impact of non-communicable diseases on future generations.
The group was shown around the dedicated education space where they witnessed the hands-on learning in action.
Programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend and Professor Mark Hanson explained how the project used a range of resources to engage students in understanding the science behind health messages through a series of interactive experiences whilst at the same time helping with the professional development of teachers who continued with the modules back in their classrooms.
The group was interested to learn how the model could be used to advance the Healthy Ireland Framework which has been launched in the Republic of Ireland and is aimed at tackling health risk factors and promoting protective factors in youth, for lifelong health and wellbeing.