Al Motahida Primary and Secondary School

Healthy Eating Habits and Teachers’ Motivation

As part of its participation in the Well Schools Network, Al Motahida School for Elementary and Secondary Education focused on promoting healthy eating habits, enhancing communication with parents, and motivating teachers, in addition to acquainting students with the country’s achievements and development plans. To this end, the school has launched an initiative titled “My Mother and I - Together towards achieving a better life”, which falls within the Student and Family pillar. The initiative focused on encouraging a healthy lifestyle by engaging students and their mothers in workshops to prepare healthy food, learn healthy cooking methods and its importance to their health. The workshops also tackled the issue of calories by acquainting students with the optimal methods to reduce calorie intake. The initiative yielded significant and positive results, notably reducing obesity rate among students and parents and enhancing their health awareness, which highlighted the school’s instrumental role in nurturing positive life skills that impact lifestyle. And even though the primary goal of the initiative was to boost awareness of healthy eating habits, it also managed to increase interaction with parents by engaging mothers and daughters in the initiative. This, in turn, would impact the family, because healthy cooking skills and techniques acquired at school will be ultimately benefit the rest of the family.
 
As part of the Teachers’ pillar within the Well Schools Network, the school also launched the “My Excellence Score Card” initiative, aimed at motivating teachers and recognizing their valuable role in school community. This card includes a set of criteria, which once attained and achieved, allow the honoring of distinguished female teachers. This would boost teachers’ morale, enhance their productivity and increase their motivation to work. The initiative enhanced female teachers’ psychological wellbeing, which ultimately reflected positively on their students. Dedicating special attention to teachers is an essential component of the positive education approach adopted by the Well Schools Network.
 
In the Well Schools Network Society pillar, the school launched the “I Can” program, designed to boost students’ awareness of the country’s achievements and development plans and encouraging them to engage in volunteer work. The school invited several government and private institutions to acquaint students with the various set of government initiatives and future plans; it also hosted several successful community figures to inspire students with their success stories. The initiative also included campaigns to encourage female students to serve the community through volunteer work, which strengthened female students’ volunteering skills, their ability to cope with challenges and provided them with a range of life skills that would shape the personality of female students.
 
Rania Mustafa Hussein, Education Resource Specialist at Al Motahida School for Elementary and Secondary Education said: “We express our thanks and gratitude to the Well Schools Network, which was launched by the National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing on this platform, which motivates us as schools to adopt and encourage positive education and instill positive personal skills and future academic skills in students, which would yield a clear and effective impact on society and its institutions. Within our participation in the network, we focused on encouraging healthy lifestyle through healthy eating habits. We also focused on Teachers, who are key elements in positive education and paly an instrumental role in influencing students. We also found a need to inspire students to build their personalities by sharing success stories of community role models with them. Though positive education, we seek to nurture life skills that may not be acquired in the academic curriculum. The school plays a valuable life and academic role to build students’ personalities who are able to excel in their future life.