A timely prescription for science lessons that make a difference
This World Health Day, the World Health Organization is shining a spotlight on a topic that truly matters – maternal and newborn health. The 2025 theme, “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures,” reminds us that a strong start in life isn’t just about biology – it’s about opportunity, equality, and survival.
As the WHO puts it:
"The health of mothers and babies is the foundation of healthy families and communities, helping ensure hopeful futures for us all."
So why not let this global campaign deliver more than just awareness? For UK secondary science educators, it’s the perfect springboard to connect classroom science with real-world issues—and give your lessons a healthy dose of relevance.
đź“Ł Assembly ideas that pack a punch
Stuck for how to mark the day? Here are two quick wins that’ll grab students’ attention:
- WHO's infographics: Scroll to the bottom of the World Health Day campaign page to find infographics that could be used for slides in a school assembly.
- Video with impact: Kick off with this punchy 1-minute video from World Vision (via the IET's World Water collection) showing how dirty water spreads disease – ideal for connecting waterborne illness to maternal and child health.
🧪 Cross-curricular links
This year’s theme is a great way to birth collaboration across subjects:
- Child Development
Direct your colleagues to MSF’s free teaching resource, which explores the physical and mental impact of pregnancy through the lens of healthcare access. It’s packed with Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary and includes a powerful video on maternal care in Afghanistan.
- Graph Skills & Health Monitoring
This Healthy Childhood resource is great for KS3 /KS4 and supports learning on interpreting graphs related to child development—perfect for building science and data literacy at once.
Looking to inject a bit of health science into your regular lessons? The STEM Learning World Health Day collection is a one-stop shop:
👉 World Health Day Collection – STEM Learning
Our top picks:
- Good and ill health – helps students recognise how changes in their body could be signs of illness.
- Disease – covers causes of disease and prevention.
- Pathogens – brilliant for reinforcing microbiology content.
These BEST evidence resources are grounded in research and help tackle misconceptions head-on—great for a quick classroom spotlight on health without rewriting your whole scheme of work.
🌍 Science that saves lives
Whether you’re teaching biology, food science, health and social care, or child development, World Health Day 2025 offers an ideal delivery window to show students how science underpins life itself. It’s a chance to raise awareness, spark empathy, and perhaps even inspire the next generation of health professionals.
So this April, let’s teach our students that healthy beginnings really do lead to hopeful futures—and that science has a key role in making that happen.