Healthy Schools

We are extremely proud that Southville was one of the first schools in Bristol to be awarded the Mayor’s Award for Excellence as a health-promoting school. We are committed to encouraging all children to make healthy and active lifestyle choices.

Recently, Bristol City Council Healthy Schools have divided the awards programme into individual awards that assess a school’s work in key areas of health. Southville has recently been awarded the Mental Health and Wellbeing Badge and the Food and Nutrition Badge, which recognise our great work in these areas.

We promote physical and mental health in school through a number of avenues and activities, including weekly lessons in class for all children, weekly assemblies and curriculum enrichment events such as World Food Week and Harvest Fortnight.

Wellbeing Team

A number of our staff members sit on our Wellbeing Team, working together to develop our support for children and staff. We sometimes participate in research projects around children’s mental health and wellbeing, which helps us identify key areas of development for our school as well as learn new ways of supporting each other.

Healthy Eating

We are proud to have achieved the Bristol Eating Better Gold Award.

We encourage all children to develop healthy eating habits both in school and within their lives outside of school. We believe that forming healthy habits during the primary years sets children up for a lifetime of making good choices. We do this through our in-house school dinners, promoting healthy packed lunches, teaching the children about the balanced plate and running a health tuckshop. Please see our policies page for our Food Policy, which provides more detail.

Gardening Clubs

We run gardening clubs at both our Merrywood and Myrtle sites, growing herbs and vegetables from seed to fork. More information about these enrichment activities are provided to parents annually during the growing season so you can find out when your child can get involved.

Physical Education

As well as twice-weekly PE lessons, we also participate in a number of enrichment activities that provide the children with additional ways of getting more exercise through competitive and non-competitive sports. We work with the Bristol Sport Foundation to provide specialist coaching in identified sports for all children from years 1—6. Each year, we choose between four and six sports to train the children in so that over time they develop skills and interests across a wide range of activities. We also work with Ashton Park School Sports Partnership to get involved in events and competitions with other primary schools in south Bristol. These are sometimes competitive, such as basketball competitions and swimming galas, and sometimes non-competitive, such as dance shows.

Bikeability Training

Each year, children in KS2 are given the opportunity to improve their cycling skills and develop road safety awareness through bikeability training. We offer level 1 and level 2 training. Level 1 aims to develop mastery in cycle handling in an off-road environment and prepare children for riding on the road. Level 2 training aims to develop children’s skills and confidence for cycling on single-lane roads, fully supervised by the adults who are training them.