Ballinamallard Primary School has been named Healthy Heroes School of the Month for February, thanks to the students’ efforts in promoting healthy eating.

It is among hundreds of primary schools across the island of Ireland that are participating in the Healthy Heroes Lunch Club initiative from the Irish Bread Bakers Association (IBBA) and Bord Bia, which aims to educate children on nutrition, physical activity and how to improve their lunchtime habits.

Designed by teachers and behaviour change experts with the support of Dr. Mary McCreery, one of Ireland’s foremost consultant nutritionists and dieticians, the Healthy Heroes Lunch Club gives children the opportunity to foster valuable leadership, teamwork and communication skills, all while learning to stay active and eat healthily.

Now in its ninth year, the successful programme allows both pupils and teachers to learn all about lunchtime nutrition, helping to boost children’s activity levels, all whilst having lots of fun in a non-competitive environment.

Ruth Johnston, teacher at Ballinamallard Primary School said: “As a school community, we are delighted to be selected as the Healthy Heroes School of the Month for February. All of our students absolutely love taking part in the programme, and they get a real buzz from chatting about what’s in their healthy lunchboxes.

"We can see the eagerness with which the older children in particular approach the structured activities and helping younger pupils to make healthy food choices.”

Following on from the ‘School of the Month’ award, the Year Seven pupils at the school have been putting the Eatwell Guide recommendations into action by completing an intensive study of the main food groups required to ensure a healthy balanced diet.

"Through research and group discussion they created a range of healthy meal plans which reflected this. Posters were created in ICT sessions which were distributed to each of the classes along with a brief explanation of what eating healthily means."

All the school's pupils were encouraged to choose a variety of fruit and vegetables for their lunch and received reward stickers if they did. These added up as a class to compete for the main prize - the Class Cup for the Healthiest Class.

A whole school Taster Session was organised by the pupils which involved displaying a wide range of foods from each of the food groups as well as the opportunity to taste.

Raw vegetable platters were given to each class, as well as homemade guacamole and houmous. The aim was to encourage the pupils to try something new and healthy.

Year Seven also made smoothies for the whole school using fresh fruit and low-fat Greek yoghurt to reduce the sugar ratio.

"The consensus was that eating more healthily was achievable and very enjoyable!" said school principal Christina McEldowney.