Secondary vocational schools with a special approach to physical activity

Four schools are involved:

What these schools have in common is a clear vision of physical activity and a highly motivated subject department. Other similarities include additional physical education hours and a broad range of sports. Within this framework, each school has its own unique focus and approach. How have these schools managed to achieve this, with all the challenges secondary vocational education faces? We take a closer look at nine elements of their approach.

1. Formulate a clear vision of physical activity

According to the head of the Kiemm department in Amsterdam, formulating a clear vision of physical activity starts with speaking out. “We are an active school. Physical activity is a natural need for children, and we want to facilitate that. This is reflected in additional sports lessons, but we have a broader vision of health. For example, children do not consume snacks or soft drinks at our school. They also do not use their mobile phones during the entire day, something they have now become accustomed to. What you see is that children talk to each other again during breaks instead of looking at a screen. That connection is central to our vision, and exercising together plays an important role in it.”
That you do not have to be a purely sports-focused school to promote more physical activity in secondary vocational education is demonstrated by Campus 013 in Tilburg. “At heart, we are an ordinary secondary vocational school, with technology, care and green studies alongside sports. But offering so much sport to all students brings a great deal to the school. Physical activity creates a welcome sense of connection in our school, which is a merger of a series of smaller secondary vocational schools. It has also helped improve our students’ behaviour. In this way, sport is meaningful for the well-being of all students.”

2. Provide additional physical education hours

All the nominated secondary vocational schools obviously offer above-average numbers of PE hours (physical education). This is the case both in the regular programme and in the form of electives, workshops and tournaments.
At Stanislas in Rijswijk, lower-year students even start every day with an hour of sport, which is quite exceptional. Children who choose this school do so deliberately. As a result, many active students specifically enrol at this school. “By exercising first, they can immediately release their energy, and there is more peace and concentration in the classroom. After exercising, we deliberately schedule two important academic subjects, usually mathematics and Dutch. Teachers really notice it during exam week when there has been no sport in the morning.”

3. Dare to make choices

So many additional PE hours and all that extracurricular provision mean that choices have to be made. At Da Vinci, the school days are slightly longer to accommodate all the sports. At Kiemm, Art was removed from the regular programme and is available as an elective. Stanislas reduced lessons across the board from 50 to 45 minutes. “That did take some convincing, I can tell you. But our colleagues understand that more time for sport actually benefits concentration during subjects such as mathematics.”

4. Offer a varied range of sports

It is also important to make physical activity appealing by offering a varied range of sports. The nominated schools excel in this area too. A small selection of what they offer: bouldering, open-water swimming, martial arts, archery, fitness, mountain biking, skating, canoeing, running, frisbee, 3x3 basketball, ... and so on!
The students actively contribute ideas about the range of sports, through the student council or via surveys and discussions.

5. Deal creatively with a shortage of facilities

One challenge the schools face is the shortage of facilities in the Netherlands. If you want to offer students many hours and many different types of sport, this is quite a challenge. There needs to be space, and it has to fit into the timetable.
Kiemm deals with this creatively by making use of nearby open water, where it offers open-water swimming and canoeing. Lower-year students also go running in Oosterpark. The school makes further use of public spaces for freerunning and longboarding lessons.
Campus 013 is in extensive discussions with the municipality about this. “Don’t panic, but switch to the sports you can offer, in facilities where there is space. So now we suddenly find ourselves skating and bouldering.”
Stanislas also works with local sports clubs, as well as the local jump park, swimming pool and fitness centre. “Good communication is important here. You do not want to be dependent on nearby organisations for everything either. We deliberately bring some sports into the school.” Da Vinci now has a fantastic facility of its own, partly for this reason. The school has well-equipped sports halls at the heart of the school. They chose to pool the money they had been spending on renting space everywhere and build their own facility.

6. Put personal development at the centre

These secondary vocational schools try to motivate their students by dealing creatively with performance and assessment. At Stanislas and Kiemm, students no longer receive grades for PE. Instead, the focus is on each individual’s personal development.
Stanislas assesses students based on a combination of attendance, effort and sporting skills. “If you can already perform a perfect somersault in the very first lesson, that is wonderful. But what about a student who works up a sweat week after week to learn it, gets very far, but perhaps still cannot quite do it? That student deserves the same good assessment just as much.”
To keep PE lessons sufficiently challenging for everyone, Stanislas offers sports lessons at different ability levels. “Three times a year, our students take a motor skills test to see whether they are still in the right group or can move up. Ability-based grouping gives students a lot, because everyone exercises with peers of a similar level. Less-skilled students suddenly get plenty of opportunities with the ball too. And talented students can truly excel in their own group.”

7. Combine physical activity with executive functions

It is clear from these schools that sport is fun. But sport is also used intelligently here to develop students’ executive functions, something that deserves considerable attention in secondary vocational schools. Sport is therefore a means of helping children become more skilled in other areas too.
At Stanislas, they consciously ask: what happens during physical education lessons, and how can this be translated into other lessons and situations? This is combined in the subject ‘Movement and Learning’. “When our school started promoting more physical activity eight years ago, all teachers received training in metacognitive practice. Now movement and learning are much more closely linked. Topics such as dealing with pressure, accuracy and impulsive behaviour all return in the sports lessons. This means that, together with the students, we can also reflect on them in academic subjects. Children then recognise certain behaviour in themselves more easily.”
Kiemm also deliberately links sport with executive functions. “Each sports activity is linked to a specific executive function. And a working group looks at how we can connect this to the other subjects. For example, dealing with winning and losing, but also planning and organising.”

8. Ensure equal opportunities

Another characteristic of many secondary vocational schools is that they have relatively many students from middle- and low-income families. Not all children are members of a sports club; often, there simply is not enough money. Nevertheless, these schools are committed to giving their students equal opportunities.
Campus 013 goes a long way in this respect. “Forty per cent of our students come from families with the lowest incomes. But all children are allowed to participate in everything. We all go to Efteling or to the climbing forest. We try to make smart use of all possible subsidy funds. There are funds available specifically for this type of student. By being so inclusive, we attract more enrolments. And that, in turn, generates new funds. Business-minded, yes, but this creates many opportunities for the school!”
Inclusivity and equal opportunities also apply to less sporty students. As the Stanislas subject teacher explains: “At college, you learn how to teach children to perform the perfect somersault. But what if students say: no, I don’t feel like doing that? I had not been trained in how to deal with that. Yet as a subject teacher, you are particularly important to students who are less skilled or motivated. Our task is to involve all students at their own level.”

9. Build a motivated team

A final indispensable ingredient for more physical activity in secondary vocational education is a motivated team. At the nominated schools, a strong subject department and the management work together to lead the way.
Policy on recruiting staff is important here. When hiring new colleagues, Stanislas genuinely looks for teachers who can be role models for the students. The school’s vision is decisive in this regard. At Kiemm, they explicitly recruit ‘pioneering spirits’. In addition to extra PE teachers, this school also deploys the rest of the team creatively. For example, an ordinary teacher teaches the mountain biking lessons.
As the director of Da Vinci says: “Our subject department lobbied tirelessly for a sports profile for our school. They make the case for more sports hours, submit a solid plan and simply have a convincing story. I cannot ignore them. They then genuinely demonstrate quality and are truly committed to the kids.”