• School partners with Ninja Fit to develop food-centred content and strategies
  • Launch coincides with and complements emirate-wide Dubai Fitness Challenge    

DUBAI, UAE: Coinciding with the sixth annual Dubai Fitness Challenge, GEMS Legacy School has this month launched the Emirate’s first K-12 nutrition curriculum designed to promote a healthy diet, active lifestyle and fitness-focused mindset. The curriculum aims to empower the entire school community by providing students, staff and parents with the information, tools and motivation needed to make healthier food choices.

Created in partnership with the co-founders of Ninja Fit, Sameer Shaikh and Neha Chohan, the school’s new curriculum will create nutrition-centred content and strategies that are cross-curricular and can be integrated into lessons throughout the school day.

Asha Alexander, Principal of GEMS Legacy School and Executive Leader – Climate Change at GEMS Education, commented: “When teens assume more responsibility and greater autonomy in choosing what they consume, this can lead to a decline in the quality of their diets. To enhance their appreciation of food systems, we are piloting our new nutrition curriculum with students in Grades 6 and 7 for a period of six months. Our aim is to then roll this out across the whole school and encourage our students, teachers and even parents to make healthier choices.”

Sameer Shaikh, Founder and Nutritionist at Ninja Fit, said: “Good health is a triage of nutrition, mindset and movement. All three pillars have to be built simultaneously in conjunction with one another. We’re excited to work with the teachers at GEMS Legacy School to grow the curriculum and its implementation beyond the classroom.”

With diet quality often declining during adolescent years, GEMS Legacy School is aiming to transform the future of community health with its food innovation-focused programme. Students will learn nutrition education that will empower them with the knowledge and skills to make healthier food and beverage choices, recognising how a healthy diet can also influence emotional wellbeing and, in turn, learning outcomes.

The curriculum was launched through a series of awareness sessions for teachers, parents and students held in October, coinciding with Dubai’s preparations ahead of the annual Dubai Fitness Challenge initiated by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid, Crown Prince of Dubai. For the month-long event’s ambition to encourage Dubai residents to undertake 30 minutes of exercise per day, the school will emphasise the importance of good nutrition alongside exercise in achieving a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

GEMS Legacy School’s launch of its nutrition curriculum follows an earlier engagement by the GEMS Wellington schools with the ‘Bite Back’ campaign, also focused on healthy nutrition. Both initiatives are in line with the GEMS Education’s sustained focus on promoting students’ mental and physical wellbeing.

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About GEMS Education

GEMS Education is one of the world’s oldest and largest K-12 private education providers. It is a highly regarded choice for quality private education in the Middle East and North Africa region. As a company founded in the UAE in 1959, it holds an unparalleled track record of providing diverse curricula and educational choices to all socio-economic means. GEMS Education now owns and operates 63 schools and educates over 130,000 students in the MENA region; and through its growing network of schools as well as charitable contributions is fulfilling the founder’s vision of putting a quality education within the reach of every child.

For further information about GEMS Education, visit www.gemseducation.com or contact:
Mina Kiwan 
Senior Account Director
Memac Ogilvy
Mina.kiwan@ogilvy.com