With NHS dentist places being in very short supply, there has never been a more critical time to ensure that the correct oral health messages are being delivered through the curriculum in primary schools.
Healthy Schools in conjunction with Dental Health Care (the specialist NHS community dental service) and Awesome Oral Health are delighted, therefore, to present a programme of Oral Health initiatives for all primary teachers in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for 2023.
1, A free 1 hour CPD webinar delivered by Cambridgeshire Community Services Oral Health Team has been created to support teaching staff by upskilling and improving confidence in delivering Oral Health Promotion in the classroom. This includes key oral health messages and basic trauma management along with ideas and suggestions on how best to integrate these into lesson planning to ensure national curriculum requirements are met. The presentation will be followed up with a simple toolkit to support this. Schools may have already been approached about the My Smile Award supervised toothbrushing scheme, but regardless of this the Oral Health training is available to everyone.
Please be aware that places on the webinars will be limited to two staff members per school and there are 30 places on each one.
The first webinar will take place online on Tuesday 21st March 2023 ( 15:45 – 16:45) with future dates to be scheduled throughout the year in due course.
To book a place, please click this link
2, The Raisin Awareness project run by Social Enterprise Awesome Oral Health invites primary schools to access a package of resources by linking up with local dental practices. This includes regular delivery of Oral Health Education literature to all pupils and practical demonstrations of tooth-friendly snack choices with the Raisin Swap, plus the opportunity to invite dental professionals into the classroom. Register your interest here.
3, Celebrate National Smile Month between 15th May and 15th June 2023. Set a date and have fun with an hour of hands-on activity stations, and for the families at home there will be online competitions and events on social media too. Awesome Oral Health will be providing simple to follow instructions suitable for reception, KS1 & KS2 classes. Teaching staff in this year’s pilot said “Thank you, the kids loved it.” “The children were really interested in doing the activities.” “The dental messages came across really well.” “I learned something too!”