SHAPES Results Give Schools Insights into Student Health

CHARLOTTETOWN, PE – NOVEMBER 1, 2012 –  The PEI Home and School Federation encourages local home and school associations across the province to request school-level results from the recently released SHAPES survey of student health.

SHAPES – a joint project of the Departments of Education and Health and the University of PEI – collected student surveys from 6563 students at 54 schools during the 2010-2011 school year, and this information has been collated and analysed, and reports are available both at the provincial and individual school level.

School principals in participating schools now have the school-level reports in-hand, and home and school associations can request that these be shared with parents.

SHAPES reports provide insights into mental health, physical activity, and healthy eating; by looking at school-level results, home and school associations, along with principals, teachers and students, can make more informed decisions about health-related projects and programming in the school.

Under the School Health Grant program, funding is available to schools for projects that seek to improve and understand student health.

The collection of SHAPES data was not mandatory, and some schools did not participate in the survey; the release of data from the SHAPES school-level reports is left to the discretion of local principals.