P4 and P5 pupils, pre-schoolers to join national scheme to get children to adopt healthy habits
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The roll-out will be implemented in phases across pre-schools and is expected to reach about 1,800 pre-schools by end-2026.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
SINGAPORE – All Primary 4 and 5 pupils, and K1 and K2 pre-schoolers, will receive personalised health plans from January, as part of a national strategy to help them make healthy choices a way of life
The roll-out will be implemented in phases across pre-schools and is expected to reach about 1,800 pre-schools by end-2026, said the Health, Education, and Social and Family Development ministries in a joint statement on Jan 21.
“The pre-school years are a critical period as preferences and habits are formed during this period, and become the foundation for lifelong health,” it said. “Research, including findings from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes study, shows that healthy behaviours are best cultivated early.”
About 80,000 Primary 4 and 5 pupils will benefit from the Health Plan in 2026 as part of the school health screening.
“This will build on the efforts in helping students adopt healthy behaviours as they progress through the years,” said the statement.
Grow Well SG, launched in January 2025, aims to empower families to make sure children put down their mobile devices, eat well-balanced meals, get moving and have enough sleep, with support from pre-schools, schools, healthcare institutions and the community.
There is also a focus on relationships within the family and social connections with friends, a key component of healthy lifestyles.
The goals are to eat well, sleep well, learn well and exercise well.
The Ministry of Health had announced in January 2025 that the personalised health plans would be progressively rolled out to Primary 1 to Primary 3 pupils in all mainstream schools across Singapore. About 114,000 of them have received their health plans in 2025.
For K1 and K2 children, the initiative was piloted in six pre-schools in July 2025, reaching about 840 children.
The latest joint statement said parents and pre-school operators gave positive feedback about the pilot.
The health plan provides lifestyle guidance tailored to each child’s interests and habits based on a questionnaire completed by parents at the start of the year.
Healthcare personnel will give the child a “lifestyle prescription” during the Health Promotion Board’s annual school health screening programme.
To support learning at home, parents will also be given activity sheets to engage their children and reinforce healthy habits at home. Pre-schools will also receive a toolkit with resources to promote healthy habits in school.
A parent, Ms Jessica Chan, who took part in the pilot, said her six-year-old son enjoyed an activity sheet at PCF Sparkletots @ Kampong Glam that asked the children to spot in a picture bad habits such as using phones during mealtimes and sitting very near the television.
Ms Chan, who runs an online business, said the activity sheets provided an alternative to using screentime to engage children, which working parents often have no choice but to turn to on weekdays.
“The less TV he watches, the less time he uses a phone, the more stable are his emotions,” she said.
For the Primary 6 cohort, from 2027, schools will use the health plans that pupils received in their previous years and resources such as the Grow Well SG Teacher’s Toolkit to have discussions with them on lifestyle choices to sustain healthy habits.
This will complement current practices of reiterating health messages through the school curriculum, such as physical education and character and citizenship education classes, said the statement.
Parents are encouraged to use their children’s health plans to guide conversations and reinforce healthy habits at home.
More information on the Health Plan for children can be found at
