Wellness

Strengthening the Mind, Body, and Character

Since our charter began, we've placed emphasis on helping our students become the best and healthiest versions of themselves. But with the rise of childhood obesity and mental health issues in our young people, we've felt called to do more for our students and their families. To do this, we've launched our 'A Healthier Me' Wellness campaign.

Objective

To inform, educate and assist, our students in living their best life, and we have done that by creating a well-rounded curriculum that encompasses healthy lifestyle habits and physical fitness to extend beyond the traditional "p.e." classroom.

A Healthier Me - Wellness Campaign

Individual Wellness Assessment (IWA)

As part of A Healthier Me, every student in first through 12th grade will have Individual Wellness Assessments (IWA). The Individual Wellness Assessment is made up of three data points: a body mass index test, the Eagle Fitness Challenge, and Rhithm social-emotional checks. These data points will help us build a report card that will be sent home to families.

This purpose of this report card is to provide you awareness about your students physical and mental health - including areas where they're excelling, and areas where we can all work together to support them.

Students will be assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year and families will receive two report cards - once in December, and once in May.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a commonly used indicator of body fat for both adults and children. BMI divides a students weight by their height and gives us a number between 11 and 35. Students who fall into the 5th to 84th percentile are considered by the cdc to be a healthy weight, which is where we want to see our students.

We are using BMI as a starting point, not as a single deciding factor of a students health. We acknowledge that many healthy students will fall outside of the range that the CDC consider healthy because they are an athlete or for a variety other reasons. Because of this, we take time to build relationships with our students as individuals, and account for all factors when providing them support and helping them reach their goals.

Gathering height and weight information can be sensitive for some, and our coaching staff is committed to make the process safe, comfortable, and confidential for all students. This process is done one-on-one and all height and weight information is kept between the student and their coach. The student will know their height and weight, but they will not be told their BMI number.

This is because we don't want any student to focus on a number, but instead on meeting their goals.

Eagle Fitness Challenge (EFC)

Every student will complete an Eagle Fitness Challenge three times a year. The first will take place at the beginning of the school year and will provide baseline stats that we can use to assess their growth. They will take the second in the middle of the year, and the third at the end of the year.

Students are already familiar with the eagle fitness challenge and have historically taken it only twice a year. Adding one in the middle of the year helps us see how our students are progressing and how we may need to adjust.

The Eagle Fitness Challenge is an overall measure of endurance and strength and consists of push ups, sit ups, sit and reach, flex arm hang, pacer, and vertical jump.

We know that for some students, the Eagle Fitness Challenge will be fun, while for others, it will be a true challenge. The Eagle Fitness Challenge should not be a source of stress for our kids, but a tool that they can use to measure their progress over the course of the year.

Whether they can do one sit up or 100, we will meet them where they are and provide them the support they need to meet their goals.

Rhithm

The final component of the Individual Wellness Assessment is a mental health report from Rhithm. Rhithm is a mental health check-in app that we use for students in grades first through 12th to see how their doing socially and emotionally. Students check-in using the app two to three times a week in either their fitness or leadership classes.

In the app, students have a choice of emoji that they can select to tell us how they're feeling on check-in days. Based on their response, campus counselors are able to step in to provide support as needed.

The only individuals who have access to the Rhithm data are you - the parents or guardians - and our counselors. The report that families will receive as part of the individual wellness assessment will be an overview of how your student is doing socially and emotionally, and will include information like their usage, and mental health reporting trends.

The data in Rhithm is accessible to parents and guardians at all times, and these semi-annual reports will not be the first time you will be notified of issues or concerns. If your student is using the app and has reported any thoughts of self-harm or needing mental health support, action will be taken immediately by our campus counselors and families will be notified.

Nutrition

While moving your body is important, just as important is what you put in it. As part of this campaign we will be equipping students with the knowledge they need to make healthy choices in the kitchen through additional nutrition lessons.

The majority of the nutrition lessons will take place during Fitness classes, and will center around teaching our students healthy eating habits. But we will also be collaborating with chefs and nutrition specialists to provide healthy recipe ideas that you can make at home with your students. These recipes, as well as wellness tips will be sent out through newsletters from our charter, and your campuses.

We will also be working in collaboration with our Child Nutrition team to ensure that there are healthy options available to students while on campus.

Health Fairs

Finally, the purpose of this campaign is not only to support our students, but our ILTexas families as well. To do that, we will be holding health fairs throughout the course of the year that will service each of our campus feeder patterns.

These health fairs will include resources for things like nutrition, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation and alcohol abuse prevention. These fairs will also include blood drives, mammogram vehicles, and opportunities to meet one-on-one with a physician to see how you can best support your student at home.

Be on the lookout for emails and check back here as the health fair dates are finalized.

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