Sugar Smart Initiative

Back in February, Year 11 students and Student Council members Rachel and Sarah gave a short presentation in two assemblies to raise awareness of the dangers of eating too much sugar. 

The focus was on the amount of sugar in popular drinks and snacks and they hoped to encourage fellow students to take action to reduce the amount of sugar and raise awareness of the impact of sugar on health. 

Since those assemblies, the School Council have been promoting the healthier drinks sold within the school in both House meetings and assemblies .

As part of the initiative, Year 13 student Pippin agreed to a two week challenge and refrained from his favourite drink (around 2 litres of Coke per day) to see what impact it had on his daily life.

"Before I began the detox I would drink anything up to 2 litres of full sugar Coke a day. However during the detox I had no fizzy drinks whatsoever and I replaced them with water and various reduced sugar squashes such as Ribena.

Despite still really liking the taste of Coke following the detox, I have carried on with the reduction in my intake and now drink only one 330ml can of diet coke per day. 

Reducing my consumption of Coke did make me feel more tired and at the beginning of the detox it also made me very irritable without the usual sugar and caffeine supply.

However, hopefully the long term health effects are beneficial and the willpower used to reduce my intake of coke will be worthwhile".   Pippin, Year 13.

 Students Rachel and Pippin

The main school canteen has also made changes, in order to encourage students to make healthier drinks choices. 

The fizzy drink cans that were stocked have now been removed and a full range of sugar free drinks and flavoured waters are available. 

They also offer two bottles of still water for the price of £1 to encourage drinking of the healthiest option of all!