The Scottish Government

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Ministerial Foreword

Scotland's continued success depends on the next generation. We are working hard to give our young people every possible advantage in education so that they have every opportunity to fulfil their potential. We need our children to be as healthy and active as they can be if they are to make the most of what education has to offer.

But we have a legacy of health that does not reflect our ambitions. We know young people are the key to turning this around. We need to make sure that our children have healthy diets and good exercise habits so that they can lead healthy productive lives.

Schools play a big part in this and progress is being made. We have already revolutionised school meals, leading the UK in the drive to get high quality, nutritionally-balanced lunches on school menus. This is already having a positive effect on the health of our young people.

Our proposals are for legislation that builds on our success so far and makes sure that all pupils get the nourishment they need to succeed throughout the school day. We want to extend this beyond school meals and include what's on offer at the tuck shop or in the vending machine and ensure that schools see it as a central part of their role to help children make healthy choices through a range of actions and activities.

We are determined to continue our drive to establish healthy eating habits as part of youngsters' daily lives, starting when they are in nursery, and to encourage our youngsters to adopt healthy lifestyles. We want to make Scotland a healthier nation and we need to have children, parents and schools behind us to achieve this. Our Health Promoting Schools Unit is already working with schools across the country to help instil the healthy living ideals that are so vital to the future health and welfare of our youngsters, and our proposals seek to take this initiative further and embed in law the culture we seek in schools.

We want to make things better. We must ensure that practice is brought up to a uniformly high standard across the country. This will benefit our children's health and our nation's future.

The plans outlined in this paper contribute to that ambition.

We look forward to hearing your views.

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