← back to Children, families & young people

Healthy children

girl swinging cricket bat and smiling

Keep Moving

Children and young people aged 5 to 18 need on average at least 60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day across the week to develop movement skills, muscles, and bones.

What counts as a moderate activity?

Moderate-intensity activities will raise your heart rate, make you breathe faster, and feel warmer. One way to tell if you’re walking at a moderate intensity level is if you can still talk, but not sing.

Try to reduce the time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity.  

Protect your child from flu

A sick child lying in bed

Flu is much more serious than a bad cold. It can spread quickly and cause sudden and serious illness, such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

Children under five are especially at risk and are more likely to be hospitalised with flu than any other age group.

Published: Tue, 30 September 2025
Read more
kids running

Healthy Schools London

A lot of your time as a child (about 190 days on average) is spent in school and therefore, schools can play an important role in supporting you and your family live healthily. Barnet supports health and wellbeing in schools through programmes looking at food you eat such as Sugar Smart and SMILE to keeping active like Golden Kilometre and Daily Mile.

Healthy Schools London
healthy family

The Healthier Families Campaign

The NHS Healthier Families campaign has fun ideas to help you keep moving at home and outdoors. The campaign creates fun ideas to keep you moving during the school holidays, and plenty of recipes and healthy swap ideas to help you eat healthily.

NHS Healthier Families
children running

Move more - for families, children and young people

Physical activity is a fun and important part of growing up as it supports overall health and well-being. There are many exciting activities available in Barnet that will inspire children, young people and families to lead active and healthy lives.

Activites for children, young yeople and families in Barnet
Logo

BACE Holidays

BACE (Barnet, Active, Creative and Engaging) Holidays offers children and young people who receive free school meals to access enriching activities and a healthy lunch over the holiday periods.

Book your place for the next school holiday!
children clapping

Indoor Activities for Kids

We have loads of free indoor games and activities for children so they can still get enough daily physical activity– even when they cannot get outside! Click below to find out more.

Indoor Activities
Young people with hands in the air, happy.

Resilient Schools

Resilience in schools is seen when pupils, parents/carers and staff have a greater ability to “bounce back’’ when faced with difficulties so that they can achieve positive outcomes. The Barnet Resilient Schools Programme takes a whole-school approach to promote and build resilience in schools and address mental health concerns early on.

Please see Barnet Resilient Schools webpage
creative communities

Creative Communities events

Creative Communities is a Barnet Council initiative, led by the Library Service to deliver a programme of events, activities and experiences for local residents in Barnet. A wide range of exciting events are planned and delivered for children, teens and adults.

Events and activities across Barnet Libraries
Reading well for children. Books to help you feel better.

Reading Well for children

Reading Well for children provides quality-assured information, stories and advice to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Books have been chosen and recommended by leading health professionals and co-produced with children and families.

Reading Well for children booklist
primary school children

Flu Vaccination

Flu can cause serious illness. The free childhood flu vaccine can protect your child from severe illnesses like pneumonia and prevent the spread of flu to vulnerable groups. Any primary school child will usually get the flu vaccine at school.

Learn more about the child flu vaccine
little boy

Play safely

Play is a natural part of childhood and contributes to supporting a child’s physical and emotional well-being, growth, learning and development.  Playing helps a child make sense of the world around them, working through emotions, experiences and building supportive relationships. 

Useful Links: 

Look out for local events in Barnet for your family: 

Ideas for play for all your family: 

Here is some advice on how to stay safe when at play: