Health Promotion Strategies

Overview

Students explore key health promotion strategies and consider why they matter for individuals and communities, linking these to effective care and support.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify a range of health promotion strategies and explain how they help prevent harm.
• WALT evaluate how different strategies can influence health behaviours and outcomes.
• WALT discuss the role of professionals and communities in promoting health and wellbeing.

Success criteria

• I can describe at least four health promotion strategies and give an example of each.
• I can explain how a strategy could improve health outcomes for a specific group.
• I can compare strategies and justify which is most effective in a given scenario.
• I can reflect on how strategies connect to person-centred care and safeguarding.

Curriculum links

• Health and wellbeing: understand factors that influence wellbeing and how to promote it.
• Relationships and living in the wider world: consider responsibility for one’s health and the impact of actions on others.
• PSHE aims: develop skills to manage risk, make informed decisions, and support healthy relationships and choices.
• Lifelong learning: evaluate information and guidance to support wellbeing.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min: Hook and agenda

• Display three short statements: “Health promotion is only about telling people what to do,” “Prevention is better than cure,” “Strategies must be realistic and tailored.”
• Students vote (show of hands) and share one reason for their view. Teacher clarifies today’s focus: strategies and their value in care.

2. 5–12 min: Mini input—what counts as health promotion

• Teacher-led explanation with examples: health education (information and skills), community programmes (support and access), policy and environment (how settings affect choices), screening and early intervention, harm reduction (reducing negative impacts), and targeted interventions for groups at risk.
• Students add one question they want answered during the discussion.

3. 12–25 min: Discussion carousel—strategy sorting

• Set up four stations around the room, each with a scenario cue (e.g., smoking/vaping, sexual health and consent, healthy eating and body image, mental wellbeing and stress).
• In small groups, students sort strategy cards into “Primary prevention / Secondary prevention / Tertiary support” (teacher models the terms briefly).
• Groups capture a 1–2 sentence “Why it matters” note for one chosen strategy.

4. 25–40 min: Case study—choose and justify

• Provide each group with a short case: a local college/community needs a plan for reducing harms and improving wellbeing for a specific group (e.g., young people with anxiety, people with poor access to healthy food, increased vaping among students).
• Task: choose the best two strategies, explain how each would work in practice, and identify barriers (cost, stigma, access, literacy, motivation).
• Groups prepare a 60-second pitch including one person-centred element (respecting needs, preferences, culture, and circumstances).

5. 40–52 min: Whole-class debate—effectiveness and ethics

• Use a structured discussion format: “Claim–Reason–Evidence/Example–Effect.”
• Teacher prompts: How do we avoid blaming individuals? When should professionals refer/signpost? How do we ensure safeguarding and respect?
• Students respond to at least one other group using sentence starters: “One strength is… because…”, “A potential limitation is…”, “To improve it, we could…”

6. 52–58 min: Individual check—exit ticket

• Students complete a brief response: “Pick one strategy and explain: (1) who benefits, (2) how it prevents harm, (3) why it supports care.”
• Teacher collects for formative assessment.

7. 58–60 min: Plenary—real-world link

• Students share one action they would take as a member of a community/setting to promote health (e.g., signpost, create supportive culture, attend to accessibility).

Resources

• Strategy card set (health education, community support, policy/environment, screening/early help, harm reduction, targeted interventions).
• Station scenario slips (4 short scenarios).
• Case study handouts (1 per group).
• Highlighters or sticky notes for “primary/secondary/tertiary” sorting.
• Discussion sentence starters for academic language support.
• Exit ticket slips and pens.
• Timer and simple classroom display for group roles (facilitator, spokesperson, recorder).
• Dyslexia-friendly reading pack: shorter sentence versions of case study text and enlarged print.

Assessment

• Formative: teacher observes carousel sorting accuracy and group reasoning during pitches.
• Summative (mini): exit ticket shows students can describe strategies, justify effectiveness, and connect to care.
• Discussion quality: evaluate use of claim–reason–example and respectful, evidence-based reasoning.

Differentiation

• Support:
• Provide simplified scenario summaries and a glossary of key terms (health education, screening, harm reduction) in plain English.
• Sentence starters for case study justification and debate responses.
• Offer roles in groups (reader, summariser, question-asker, presenter) to ensure participation.
• Dyslexia-friendly reading options: enlarged print, reduced text versions, and audio read-aloud by teacher or learning assistant where available.
• Challenge/extension (for faster learners):
• Ask students to include one additional strategy not on the card set and evaluate its feasibility using a “cost–benefit plus unintended consequences” lens.
• Require a short comparison: “Why strategy A over B for this specific group?”
• EAL:
• Pre-teach 6–8 critical words with brief definitions and visuals (e.g., “screening,” “access,” “stigma,” “targeted”).
• Allow responses to be first discussed orally in pairs before writing the exit ticket.
• SEN:
• Reduce copying demands: provide partially completed planning frames for case study pitch.
• Use check-in questions during group work (“What problem are we preventing?” “Who benefits?”).

Extension (optional)

If you have time or for homework, ask students to design a one-page “Health Promotion Mini-Plan” for a chosen concern, including: two strategies, intended outcomes, barriers, and referral/signposting routes.