It’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and the theme this year is community. And it couldn’t be more important.
Eating disorders don’t develop in isolation. They emerge within cultures - within classrooms, peer groups, families, online spaces and wider systems. That means prevention cannot sit in just one place either. It must be shared.
That’s why partnerships like the one between South Yorkshire Eating Disorders Association (SYEDA) and The Body Happy Organisation matter so much, and it’s one we’re really proud of.
Prevention Is Stronger When Work Together
SYEDA brings deep clinical knowledge, lived experience insight and frontline expertise in supporting individuals and families affected by eating disorders.
The Body Happy Organisation works upstream - supporting schools to build cultures of body respect, strengthen media literacy, and develop children’s resilience before harmful beliefs take root.
When health and education work together, we create something more powerful than either could alone:
· Early conversations that reduce stigma
· Classrooms that challenge weight-based teasing and body shame
· Children who can critically question harmful messages
· Adults who feel more confident responding compassionately
Prevention is not a single lesson, it’s a cultural shift.
Why This Matters in Primary Schools
Research shows children can internalise weight stigma and body-based bias from a very young age. By the time they reach Upper Key Stage 2, many are already navigating appearance pressures, social comparison and online influence.
Through this partnership, schools across South Yorkshire can access our Interactive Digital Body Happy Workshop for Years 5 and 6 free of charge via SYEDA.
This workshop helps pupils to:
· Understand what body respect means
· Develop critical thinking around media messages
· Practise kinder self-talk
· Learn how to support others
It’s not about focusing on eating disorders directly. It’s about building foundations that protect wellbeing.
Community Means Shared Responsibility
Eating disorder prevention isn’t just the work of clinicians, teachers or parents. It’s shared work – and a shared responsibility. Powerful things can happen when non-profits and charities collaborate, when schools make space for these urgent conversations and work, when young people are trusted with big ideas and when health and education stop operating in silos. This is when prevention becomes possible.
If you’re a South Yorkshire school leader and would like to access the workshop through SYEDA, sign up via the button below. Prevention starts earlier than we think – and it starts together.
