Story development/storytelling, collaborative working and peer education in Dundee primary schools

This was a small piece of research which tried to gauge the use of story development/storytelling, collaborative working and peer education in health promotion in Dundee primary schools as a tool to develop health literacy. This research was an extension of a three year evaluation of Keep Well: Addressing Young Peoples Attitudes to Tobacco in Dundee Schools project 2010-2012. Keep Well, funded by NHS Tayside, was a collaboration between Tayside’s Directorate of Public Health and Dundee City Council. The primary purpose of this initiative was to promote healthy lifestyles and to reduce risk-taking behaviours, particularly smoking in young people. The Keep Well Initiative promoted a whole-school approach to pupils’ health, extending well beyond specific health education programmes to incorporate the school’s physical environment, ethos, facilities and provisions, and ‘hidden curriculum’ (West 2006: 421). Although Keep Well funding was used in an attempt to try to disrupt smoking behaviours, the initiative was more widely aimed at supporting pupils, building their self-confidence and esteem, and providing them with healthy alternatives.