Cherish Junior To Be Extended To Six Ppis Early Childhood Education Centres

Singapore, 29 January 2013: CHERISH Junior, a health promoting framework for pre-schools, will now be extended to six more pre-schools. CHERISH (CHampioning Efforts Resulting in Improved School Health) Junior is a holistic framework adapted from the World Health Organization’s Health Promoting School concept, which advocates a learning environment that provides children with an integrated health-conscious experience.

2. The CHERISH Junior framework will be implemented by March 2013 within all six of the Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura (PPIS) chain of early childhood education centres. PPIS is the first Malay Muslim organisation to setup early childhood education services in Singapore in 1983.

3. The pre-school environment provides one of the most conducive environments for influencing lifestyle habits that can be lifelong – not just by reaching out to young children, but also to relevant stakeholders such as parents and teachers.

4. HPB’s CHERISH Junior framework comprises the following health promoting initiatives designed for the pre-school setting including the six participating PPIS early childhood education centres:
   

   • The Pre-school Health Curriculum
     Teachers use lesson plans and activities, developed by HPB for children aged three to six, to teach health-related topics in a fun and interesting way. The curriculum covers several health topics pertinent to children, namely smoking prevention, healthy growth and weight, oral health, mental health, hygiene, myopia prevention and childhood injury prevention.

   • The Healthy Meals in Childcare Centres Programme (HMCCP)
     To help childcare centres prepare meals with foods found in the four food groups and in the right proportion, HPB’s nutritionists help them put together menus that are balanced and healthy. In addition, HPB installs interactive wall murals and stickers at the premises to teach children about healthy lifestyle and healthy meals. Cooks in these centres will be trained so that they can improve meals to be Healthy Set Meals.

   • The Pre-school Health Ambassador (PSHA) Programme
     Students are selected and trained by teachers to act as role models and champion simple health-promoting habits, such as regular brushing of teeth, among their classmates, with the help of a Pre-school Ambassador Kit.

5. Madam Halimah Yacob, Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Jurong GRC, said, “Over the years, the Health Promotion Board has done a good job to ensure that the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle are incorporated in our daily lives particularly in our young ones. With the changing lifestyles and health needs of Singaporeans, extending CHERISH Junior a structured health promotion framework, to more pre-schools is timely. Even more so as the World Health Organization has given special recognition to HPB’s CHERISH framework. As a mother myself, we want the best for our children at all times and by permeating pre-schools we are giving our children a good head-start for their future.”

6. Mr Ang Hak Seng, Chief Executive Officer, HPB, said, "Currently, about 11% of pre-schoolers in pre-schools are overweight. Bearing this in mind, we are introducing the CHERISH Junior framework to even more pre-schools. The framework provides guidance for pre-schools to establish themselves as a setting where all members of the pre-school and its community work together to provide children a conducive environment for the cultivation of healthy habits from young. The three key initiatives will be the pre-school health curriculum, healthy meals in childcare centres programme and pre-school
   health ambassador programme. These programmes are meant to tackle health issues at the roots such as ensuring healthier meals and physical activity for pre-schoolers will help to combat obesity. We have also provided pamphlets to parents to help them inculcate healthy habits in their pre-schoolers. In addition to the six new PPIS centres, we aim to reach a total of 500 pre-schools by 2015.”

7. HPB’s CHERISH (Championing Efforts Resulting in Improved School Health) Framework was recently awarded a Special Recognition by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. The award was presented as part of the Fifth Global Conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities. Building on the concept of a Health Promoting School and recognising that health promotion to youth is paramount, HPB has revised the CHERISH Framework in 2012. CHERISH gives recognition to institutions that constantly strive to improve themselves as healthy settings for students, staff and community. Since its inception, the CHERISH framework has evolved to cover the entire student life stages, starting with mainstream primary and secondary schools/junior colleges, and extending to pre-schools and institutes of higher learning.

8. To date, 94 pre-schools have received the CHERISH Junior award, and were assessed by HPB based on six criteria:
   

   • Healthy School Policies

   • Healthy School Physical Environment

   • Healthy School Social Environment

   • Community Involvement

   • Curricula for Healthy Living

   • Preventive and Promotion Services

Annex 1 Factsheet on the CHERISH Junior Framework
Annex 2 Factsheet on CHERISH Junior Award 2012 Results
Issued by Health Promotion Board

Media Release

For more information on the article above, refer to Media Release [PDF, 378.9 KB].