This academic year, the first ‘Specialist in Active and Healthy Schools’ graduated from the teacher-training college. This was preceded by a long process of lobbying, searching and explaining. Following a three-year pilot, this has produced teachers who are qualified to become coordinators of Active and Healthy Schools. During those three years, a professional development course was also developed for teachers who want to take on the coordinating role.
Monique van Ark explains: ‘Such a specialist simply teaches classes and then has a number of designated hours for their specialism, in this case Active and Healthy Schools. Just as there are teachers with, for example, a specialism in Culture. The added value for a primary school is that this creates sustained attention without additional costs or extra time investment. Because we know that both money and time are scarce in education.’