Health Promoting Schools in Poland: an Evaluation of Health Promotion Implementation at Schools with a National Certificate

The ‘Health Promoting School’ model provides a framework for school-based health promotion (HP) activities, which have become a major theme in the health and educational strategy in Europe. However, the issue of HP implementation is complex. The general purpose of this article is to report on the findings of a nationwide survey that examined the extent of HP implementation at schools in Poland. The research results presented in this paper are part of a broader research project which was conducted at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland) in cooperation with the University of Limerick (Ireland). The research was conducted by means of the questionnaire: “National Questionnaire on SPHE and Health Promoting Schools”, developed by the staff of the University of Limerick and adapted to Polish conditions. The questionnaires were sent to schools in Poland holding the National Health Promoting School (HPS) Certificate, one hundred and three of which were completed and returned and then analysed with respect to quantity and quality. Considering the theoretical assumptions of the idea analysed, the information obtained from the respondents describing health promotion at their schools was grouped into four categories: school environment; core curriculum and learning; partnership; policy and planning. It was determined that the work of these schools emphasises mostly two elements in building a health promoting school: the school environment along with core curriculum and learning, while the two other elements (partnership; policy and planning) are more poorly implemented.