Oral Health initiatives – Awesome Oral Health

Raising awareness of the importance of Oral Health

Oral Health initiatives for all Primary Teachers

Healthy Schools, in conjunction with Dental Health Care (the specialised NHS community dental service) and local social enterprise Awesome Oral Health, are delighted to present a programme of Oral Health initiatives for all primary teachers in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for 2023.

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.

Oral Health initiatives for all primary teachers in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for 2023

CPD Webinar

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. Following 2 successful and fully booked webinars so far, the next one will take place on Tuesday 13th June 2023 (15:45 – 16:45). To book a place, please click this link

National Smile Month

Celebrate National Smile Month between 15^thMay and 15^th June 2023. For 45 years, National Smile Month has been championing the benefits of having good oral health in a fun and engaging way. The annual campaign runs for 5 weeks and delivers simple and effective messages encouraging tooth-friendly habits from a young age instilling a life-long preventative approach to caring for a healthy smile. There are specific events and activities aimed at schools including the Great British Brushathon at 9am on Monday 15^thMay 2023 Take part | Oral Health Foundation (dentalhealth.org) and for the families at home there will be online competitions and events on social media too.

Awesome Smiles School Event

Awesome Smiles September Stations is a new event funded by Cambridgeshire County Council to offer a whole school approach to Oral Health promotion, with free access to a resource pack for all primary schools throughout Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Set a date in September and have fun! with an hour of hands-on activity stations as each class takes turns rotating through a designated space to get kids excited about caring for their smiles. Awesome Oral Health will be providing comprehensive, simple to follow instructions suitable for reception, KS1 & KS2 classes.

Teaching staff in the 2022 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!”

Accredited by the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT), the digital downloadable resources (including mini videos) will be going live on Monday 26th June to enable schools to prepare ahead of the summer holidays ready for the big day in September. Watch this space!