From screen use to sexuality and from substance use to nutrition: schools play a key role in promoting a healthy lifestyle among children and young people. But what is the best thing you can do as a professional in or around education?

In Healthy School, the podcast, presenter Maarten Dallinga explores special initiatives at schools. For example, in Vaassen he visits a training session where children in groups 7 and 8 learn to set boundaries. He also attends the launch of the Smoke Free Challenge at a secondary vocational school in Zaandam. Experts from organisations including Stichting School & Veiligheid, the Trimbos Institute, Bureau Jeugd & Media and Utrecht University provide background information and practical tips for education professionals. In each episode, Maarten discusses a different aspect of a healthy lifestyle.

How do you work together?

Healthy School, the podcast also devotes considerable attention to how schools can work together on health with, for example, parents and municipal health services. Educationalist Mariëtte Lusse, professor of practice in ‘Working with parents’ at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, shares her perspective on this in several episodes. Listeners also get to know the Huisman family in Barendrecht. Maarten has candid conversations with the father, mother and their three children about the topics covered in the podcast. The youngest attends primary school, the middle child attends secondary school and the eldest attends a secondary vocational school. These are, alongside special education, the types of schools that Healthy School focuses on.

Healthy School, the podcast is an initiative of Gezonde School – a nationwide programme that encourages schools to work on a healthy lifestyle. Starting Tuesday, 11 January 2022, an episode will be released every week. The series can be listened to via Anchor and podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Tuesday, 11 January, episode 1: Mental health in secondary vocational education

The first podcast has now been broadcast. In this episode, podcast producer Maarten Dallinga speaks with Gonneke Stevens, associate professor in Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht University. He also visits Nova College Beverwijk, a secondary vocational school where young people who are temporarily not following an education programme and need additional support are supervised.

Other episodes

The topics of seven of the nine remaining podcasts are now also known:

  • 18 January: #2 - healthy nutrition in primary education
  • 25 January: #3 - screen use in secondary vocational education
  • 1 February: #4 - inclusivity (type of education to be announced)
  • 8 February: #5 - traumatic events in primary education
  • 15 and 22 February: #6 and #7 - relationships and sexuality in secondary and primary education
  • 1 March: #8 - substance use in secondary education

About the creator

Maarten Dallinga has made more than ten podcast series. Two of them, Anoniem Intiem and Verstrikt, were awarded the journalistic prize De Tegel. In 2021, he published Zwarte Muisjes, a well-received series about mental health problems surrounding pregnancy.