About Bright Bites

Background to Bright Bites

For many years, teaching professionals up and down the country have complained about the lack of suitable resources available to help them teach children the importance of good oral health and a balanced diet. This lack of suitable resources was particularly apparent for teachers trying to teach the KS2 Science Unit (3a) “Teeth and Eating”. This unit recommends 12 hours of learning about oral hygiene and diet.

Fortunately, one such teacher’s cry for help did not fall on deaf ears. When Julia Scott, a dental student at Liverpool University was asked by her primary school teaching mother to help in her search for suitable material, she set about reviewing the issue carefully. Jules discovered that most of the resources available appeared to be commercially orientated, inappropriate to the curriculum and sometimes scientifically inaccurate. Likewise, even dental professionals were short of quality resources to encourage their younger patients to look after their teeth and oral hygiene.

Jules decided something had to be done!

Instead of heading off to the Bahamas for her dental elective, she decided to stay in sunny Liverpool and set about designing resources which were child friendly and met the national curriculum learning objectives in this subject. She called these resources ‘Bright Bites’! Successfully piloted in seven primary schools, Jules’ original version won her the Cordent Trust’s John Forrest Preventive Dentistry Award. However, the concept and resources needed considerable development before they would be suitable for widespread use in schools.

In 2004, Jules approached Dentaid and the Department of Health to develop the concept of Bright Bites further and to ensure it was made as widely available as possible. With agreed funding from the Department of Health, Dentaid employed Charlotte Jeavons, an experienced oral health promoter, for one year, to develop Bright Bites into a professional, scientifically sound and user-friendly resource that exactly matched the KS2 Science Unit (3a) requirements.
Charlotte’s skill and expertise were central to producing this outstanding resource. Drawing on a wide range of consultants and conducting a thorough pilot process, she decided that a combination of IT and paper resources were required. Over several months, the Bright Bites Teaching Pack evolved into an interactive CD-ROM, linking to 12 individual “Activity Sheets”, with an accompanying “Teaching Guide” to explain how to get the most out of the resources. (See “Inside Bright Bites” for more detailed description of the resources.)

Bright Bites launched

In March 2006, Bright Bites was launched at which Rosie Winterton was guest of honour.

With the help of official sponsors Denplan and Aquafresh, Dentaid have been able to distribute a Bright Bites oral health education pack to all 17,528 Primary Schools in England, ensuring that all KS2 children in England will now have equal access to quality oral health education. A free copy has also been distributed to each Community Dental Service. Coupled with anticipated interest from dental practices across the United Kingdom, Bright Bites is well on its way to achieving its goal of reducing educational inequality in the field of oral health for the nation’s children.

Nigel Thomas, Project Manager on behalf of the Department of Health, says:- “Oral health is a very important part of general health. It is vital that our children understand the parts of our mouths and how they need to be looked after and the importance of a healthy diet. This learning resource is an excellent introduction to oral health, in an entertaining style, and is sure to be a very popular and useful resource”.

However, Dentaid believes this is only the beginning for Bright Bites. Luke Wordley, Dentaid’s Chief Executive says:- “In terms of this country, we very much see this as Edition 1 of Bright Bites. We are already working on how this concept can meet the needs of other health sections of the national curriculum, as well as hoping to attract sponsorship to distribute edition 1 of Bright Bites to Primary schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, while we are delighted with the impact that Bright Bites will make for children in the United Kingdom, Dentaid’s overall mission is to improve the oral health of children around the world. Bright Bites is only part of our work to deliver culturally appropriate oral health promotion programmes to disadvantaged communities everywhere. Through the Overseas School Sponsorship Programme, we hope that Bright Bites’ influence can extend beyond the U.K. and directly improve oral health for needy children in the developing world too.”

For more information about Dentaid, click on the “About Dentaid” link!