PUPILS put their best foot forward to take part in a week-long celebration of health and well-being as part of the annual Summer Health Festival.

Students at St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School took on the challenge to focus on different activities each day with the aim of breaking down barriers to a healthy lifestyle.

Culminating in a mile-long fun run around the school grounds on Friday, pupils took part in numerous activities throughout the week covering the importance of health.

This included sharing of some statistics regarding young peoples’ activity levels and childhood obesity, practising mindfulness and putting things into perspective and learning the truth about energy drinks.

It also involved a spot of competition between staff and students to design a healthy breakfast, demonstrating that it can still be tasty.

Friday also saw a visit from motivational speaker Dean Schneider, from New York who works with hundreds of schools across the country talking about staying focused, as well as a variety of workshops designed to help deal with stress and anxiety.

This ranged from drumming to tent-building, participating in arts and promoting physical literacy as well as physical fitness.

St Cuthbert’s also welcomed pupils from nearby primary schools, challenging them to use all their senses to experience food in new ways.

Headteacher Catherine Twist said: “We all know by now how important health and wellbeing is particularly for our children and young people, but this year’s summer health festival we have gone one step further in engaging them in some very meaningful workshops and hopefully lasting experiences, building resilience for life in the 21st century.”

The Summer Health Festival Health and Wellbeing workshops were run by experts from the Edsential team and the festival arena attracted a range of supporters including St Helens School Meals Service, Healthy Living Saint Helens, Go Active, GULP!, BeUrBest, Smoke Free team and the school nurses team.