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Our next Life Skills evening for parents and guardians of girls in Years 6 to 11 will take place on Monday 30th January 2017, from 7.00-8.30pm in the New Mark Hall.
At RMS we are committed not only to the academic achievement of your child, but also place a high priority on developing her overall wellbeing. We encourage pupils to develop a variety of effective social skills and aim to provide them with accurate information about issues affecting young people today. We hope that your child will then be able to use this information to make safer choices and lead a healthy, happier life.
We would like to encourage parents/guardians to become actively involved in the Life Skills programme we run here at School by attending these evenings, and becoming more aware of the variety of issues surrounding the physical, social, emotional and spiritual development of young people.
The session is led by nutritionist and RMS parent, Lucy Williamson, who holds a Master of Science (Nutrition) at Kings College, London. Her particular area of interest is the multi-disciplinary approach to childhood obesity, understanding and preventing eating disorders, inequalities in dietary-related disease and the gut micro biome. An experienced clinician and effective communicator, Lucy practiced Veterinary Medicine both in the UK and Canada for fourteen years. Building on her enthusiasm to impart knowledge with her clients and as a parent with extensive life experience, her career is evolving into human health promotion, through core nutrition principles.
Mrs Williamson will be joined by Dr Caroline Quinn, of the Colne Medical practice in Rickmansworth, who will go over NHS guidelines for healthy living and will answer questions on areas of concern.
The session will cover:
'Girls between 11-18 undergo many physical changes – an appropriate diet is key in their development now and as they mature. In today’s world of what can be confusing messages re healthy eating, it is more important than ever to help girls understand how to fuel themselves correctly and make good lifestyle choices. This session will therefore cover energy requirements for developing girls as well as some key nutrients they require which current evidence shows may be deficient in this age group, most notably Iron. We will discuss how these requirements can be met in every day food choices and how ‘popular’ diets may not always achieve this.
At RMS our girls are given every opportunity to learn these skills in a very caring environment. Additionally, parental input is essential in guiding their food habits. This session is therefore a great opportunity to gain further insight into healthy living.’
Her session will also include information and advice from Dr Caroline Quinn
Dr Quinn has been a GP for 20 years and moved to the Colne Practice in Rickmansworth from South London seven years ago. The Colne Practice is a nine-partner practice which looks after just over 10,000 patients. Together with her job-share partner, Dr Claudia Orsi, she has worked with the Health Centre staff at RMS for the last four years, looking after the health needs of the boarders. Dr. Quinn will speak on the sorts of issues that she encounters in the NHS and how developing a healthy lifestyle now will hopefully prevent those issues from developing – in particular – diets which are high in sugar and the dramatic rise in pre-diabetes as a result. Obesity and inactivity are of course linked to this. She plan on giving a visual presentation regarding sugar using the 'SugarSmart app' so parents are welcome to bring their iPads to try it! Dr Quinn will also provide information the healthy level of activity recommended by the government.
The presentation to parents will take place in the New Mark Hall. The doors will open at 6:45pm and light refreshments will be served from 7:00 to 7:30. The session will end at 8:30 followed by opportunities for questions and answers. In order to facilitate discussion, please do not bring your daughters to this session; they are given advice and strategies during their Life Skills lessons.
I hope you agree that this will be a worthwhile evening, where you can gain advice from trained professionals as well as discuss similar issues with other parents.
Please email Pippa Hopkins (phopkins@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk) if you would like to attend.