Monday, 14 August 2023
A new education toolkit to encourage healthy behaviours in children is being trialled in schools across Nottingham.
The Nutrition Advisory Team has created the ‘Nutri Kit’ with support from the University of Nottingham’s Food Innovation Centre. It is being offered to 30 schools across the region in a pilot project.
Nutri Kit is aimed at children aged 4-13 with the pilot materials created for year 6 chidren. The toolkit contains engaging and interactive teaching materials covering mind, body and health, and invites children to consider how dietary and lifestyle decisions impact local community and planet. It aims to build knowledge and confidence in young people to help inform choices and behaviour and support them in taking greater responsibility for their own health outcomes.
The resources have been created by professionals in teaching, nutrition, sports coaching, physiotherapy, and cognitive behaviour therapy. The Food Innovation Centre at the University of Nottingham has been supporting this project and has created some of the videos in the kit that demonstrate the science behind some of the processes in the body, like digestion.
Food science students Catherine and Lydia appearing in one of the videos about digestion
Catherine Child a third year Food Sciences student made the videos alongside Lydia Stokes. Catherine said: "I have always thought that it is important to educate the younger generation about their food choices, The NAT is a great opportunity for this to happen and I was thrilled to be involved with the creation of educational videos to be sent to local primary schools."
Teachers are being encouraged to use the pilot materials as part of a health week, or over a number of weeks as one-off activities. Whilst the materials have a focus on health literacy, they also support the teaching of physical and mental health, recognising that human health is a complex mix: biological, social, psychological, behavioural, economic and more. Animation, infographics and science videos support written resources alongside detailed lesson plans. Folllowing the pilot, Nutri Kit modules will be available for purchase.
The teaching and learning toolkit has been developed by Claire King who was a primary school teacher and headteacher and also has a background in psychology. She is keen to develop a greater understanding of the link between nutrition, brain development and behaviour. She said: “I know from my time in teaching that arming children with knowledge is key to helping them understand and change behaviour. I also know teachers need engaging, ready to use resources, which is where Nutri Kit comes in as it contains everything needed to deliver fun and informative lessons that we hope will affect real change, not just for the children but for their families too.”
Working on this project has been really exciting and it’s wonderful to see the kit come together and be available to schools. At the Food Innovation Centre we’re keen to support start-ups like this and we were able to bring our scientific knowledge and expertise to the videos that we hope children will learn from and enjoy!
Haydn Primary School in Nottingham has aready trialled the material. Year 6 teacher Joshua Grimshaw said: “The Nutri Kit resources were exceptionally informative, and the children were so engaged with the lessons. They brought completely new information to the classroom and gave our classes understanding about diet and keeping healthy that they did not know before. Children finished the lessons wanting to know more and looked forward to future lessons.”
All the schools that are taking part are doing so as part of market research for The Nutrition Advisory Team. They will be interviewed by a student from the University of Nottingham to gather feedback.
Claire continues: “Pupil voice is valued and we are looking forward to hearing from the teachers about how the pupils responded to the resources and how they can be further improved before we make them more widely available.”
For more information or to sign up email: info@nat.co.uk
Story credits
More information is available from info@nat.co.uk or Annie Blisset at annie.blisset@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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