Collaboration secures important changes to school curriculum to prevent eating disorders
Organisation / Service
EDFA and The Embrace Collective
With the support of EDFA and The Embrace Collective, a letter was prepared for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to call for significant reform of the Australian Curriculum, including:
1) the addition of ‘safety considerations’, similar to the one for anaphylaxis, for all content relating to food and nutrition, to create awareness and reduce the delivery of materials that may inadvertently cause harm to students with body image concerns.
2) A broad review of all content descriptors in HPE, Mathematics, Science, and Design and Technologies, including language such as “diet” to be replaced with “balanced nutrition”.
3) resource links to be added, so that families, teachers and school leaders could be more aware of, and better supported with, up-to-date, evidence-based information.
In November 2023, the updated Curriculum Connection – Food and Wellbeing was published on the Australian Curriculum Version 9 website, and included the changes proposed by the collaborative group. Information can be found at https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
National Strategy Standards and Actions
Prevention
4.3 Primary and secondary schools to implement whole-of-school policies and procedures to drive a culture of body appreciation and positive relationships with food and eating, promote wellbeing and mental health literacy, including taking a harm minimisation approach across all curricula and a zero-tolerance approach to appearance or identity-based teasing and bullying.
Identification
1.5 Organisational/service settings which interact with population groups at higher risk of eating disorders (e.g., LGBTQIA+ services, schools, sporting/performance organisations) to provide evidence-based information about eating disorders appropriate to the audience.
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