Wellbeing and Vitality in Education: An intersectoral framework to create and support healthy choices in education settings in South Canterbury, New Zealand

WAVE (Wellbeing and Vitality in Education) is an intersectoral project supporting healthy values, skills and practices in the children and young people of South Canterbury, New Zealand. WAVE is based on a partnership between the education, health and physical activity sectors, and provides facilitators, specialist advice, cluster support, and professional development and resources for teachers. After five years, almost all education settings participate, from early childhood through to tertiary providers. Settings have completed annual process evaluations with their facilitators, as well baseline questionnaires and 2-year follow-up questionnaires exploring project impact. Process evaluation describes a diverse range of activities, including an increasing focus on Maori (indigenous) students' needs. Impact evaluation shows significant improvements in a range of ways that early childhood and primary settings complement the health curriculum with an environment supportive of healthy choices, including increased working with external agencies on physical activity and meeting staff professional development needs for physical activity and Sunsmart (early childhood), and staff working with external agencies on healthy eating, undertaking Sunsmart professional development, and having students able to identify healthy food options (primary). There were non-significant improvements in a wide range of other measures. WAVE is achieving a significant culture change in South Canterbury education settings.