Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with schools on promoting healthy lifestyles.

All state funded schools are required to teach about the importance of healthy lifestyles as part of statutory health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

The statutory RSHE guidance sets out the principles of a healthy lifestyle, with an emphasis on empowering young people to make good choices and adopt lifestyles that will increase their chance of living happy and healthy lives, supporting the agenda on tackling obesity.

The curriculum on health education should complement, and be supported by, the school’s wider education on healthy lifestyles through physical education, food technology, science, sport, extra-curricular activity and school food.