1. Province of New Brunswick
At 73,000 square kilometers, New Brunswick is the largest of Canada’s three Maritime provinces. It is sandwiched between Québec and Nova Scotia and the US state of Maine on the East (Atlantic) Coast.

2. New Brunswick: Profile
Population 730,000, 35% French-speaking
115,000 students in public schools (52 % English, 29 % French, 19 % FI)
14 School Districts (5 French, 9 English)
330 public schools
8 Regional Health Authorities
Sources: Education Outline , Department of Education
and Annual Report, Department of Health
New Brunswick is the only constitutionally bilingual (French and English) province in the country (written into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms). The 2006 Census put the province's population in 2006 at 730,000, of which a majority is English-speaking, but a large minority (35%, chiefly of Acadian origin) is French-speaking.
New Brunswick's education system offers its 115,000 students the opportunity to learn in both French and English through two parallel but separate education systems. Each linguistic sector of the Department of Education is responsible for its own curriculum and assessment. The public education system has 14 school districts -- five French and nine English – governing its 330 schools. District Education Councils (DECs), consisting of publicly and locally elected members, are responsible for establishing the direction and priorities for the school district and for making decisions as to how the districts and schools are operated.
Public health services are delivered through the province's seven health regions (8 regional authorities because region 1 has two health authorities), administered by Regional Medical Officers of Health. The delivery of public health services is the responsibility of these regional health authorities. Public Health programs and services provided in New
Brunswick fall under the following three areas:
1) communicable disease: prevention, management and
control;
2) environmental health / community
protection, and
3) promotion of healthy lifestyles /
healthy families.

3. Healthy Learners in School Program (2000)
Public health nurses embedded in each school district office
Primary role – promote collaborative action on student wellness
Guiding framework - Comprehensive School Health
Public health nurses embedded in each school district office – 18 FTE, also some high schools
Primary role –promote collaborative action on student wellness
Comprehensive school health framework used to address variety of priority areas (e.g. physical activity, healthy eating, emotional wellbeing, tobacco reduction etc)
Program broke new ground - first time that a province had deliberately invested resources to implement a program system wide, primary function school health promotion/student wellness
Learned by doing – alone
Based on school / district perspective in NB – no opportunity to systematically link to other similar efforts across the country – most FPT collaboratives based on issues eg. nutrition, tobacco, physical activity, and mostly in health field…little opportunity to engage Education sector across country and certainly not with health

4. Wellness Strategy (2006)
Comprehensive provincial strategy including school setting
Surveillance – priority for initial implementation
BUT
School survey fatigue
Various surveys not meeting school needs
JCSH hosted Provincial/Territorial Consultations on aligning and developing Canadian data sources for child/youth health, social development and learning
Wellness Strategy focuses on 4 themes (physical activity, nutrition/healthy eating, tobacco use, mental health/resiliency) and 4 settings (homes, schools, workplaces and communities).
Surveillance (monitoring trends over time) was a priority of Wellness strategy implementation
BUT – schools were already signalling survey fatigue, feeling overburdened by surveys that took up class time without providing benefit back to schools
The JCSH had just initiated a cross-Canada consultation with health and education sectors on … data collection in schools!
Purpose of consultation:
Better understand issues related to data collection in schools
Propose solutions to address identified issues
NB Student wellness Survey:
Aligned with federal Youth Smoking Survey administration to add questions on healthy eating, physical activity, mental fitness (pillars of wellness strategy)
Used a matrix sampling method
– whole school, but each student only completed some of questions
40 minute survey (one class)
Results same school year
Feedback reports on each theme to participating schools (also to district – will be a key resource for Healthy Learners in School program efforts)
Invest in knowledge mobilization activities
curriculum maps
Workshops/presentations
Consultations
Promote sharing of success – website, newsletter, etc
Link to grant programs
Support leverage of resources / Engage other provincial partners
Consider wellness strategy resources – allocate differently based on results
Participation rate in this voluntary survey
187 of 214 schools grades 6-12 participated

5. JCSH Benefits to NB
Strengthened health, wellness and education systems alignment at provincial level
Healthy Learners in School Program:
Facilitated access to knowledge, resources, expertise to enhance program implementation at school, district and provincial level
Wellness Strategy (surveillance):
Results of the PT Consultations supported development of effective approach to school health surveillance (JCSH as knowledge broker)
Strengthened health, wellness and education systems alignment at provincial level
Healthy Learners in School Program:
- Facilitated access to knowledge, resources, expertise to enhance program implementation at school, district and provincial level
- Streamlined access to national/ international expertise in support of NB efforts
- Avenue to share NB experience – validation/recognition of effort and opportunity to contribute to pan-canadian efforts in school health
Wellness Strategy (surveillance) :
Supported development of effective approach to school health surveillance (knowledge broker)
Opportunity! NB was able to piggy back on this consultation process to refine the wellness surveillance strategy
From JCSH consultation learnings, NB approach would:
Build on existing opportunities
Minimize school burden
Provide relevant feedback to participating schools
Support action on results
Be timely