The director of It Tredde Sté is quite clear about it: “Any school that wants to profile itself as a Healthy School must have the Well-being thematic certificate, no matter what. In my view, everything depends on that. You can only develop other themes once you have safety in order.” And according to Margreet van der Laan, obtaining that first thematic certificate does not have to be all that complicated.

Dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s

“If, as a school, you already attach great importance to pupils feeling safe and comfortable, you will probably obtain that certificate quite easily. That is how it went for us too. We simply needed to raise things to a slightly higher level and put a number of matters in writing. Then the application was quickly completed—with Healthy School adviser Lindy Feddema helping us dot the i’s and cross the t’s. When Margreet subsequently came across the Healthy School incentive scheme for Relationships and Sexuality, she immediately knew: we are intrinsically motivated for this subject too.”

Intrinsic motivation

According to Margreet, that intrinsic motivation is essential. “Otherwise it does not work. A theme must already be important at school, and there must be support for it within the team. Everyone here was immediately 100% behind it. That did not mean, incidentally, that it could not feel daunting to give the subject of sex a more concrete form. But we all saw its importance. And the lessons we were going to use—Kriebels in je buik—turned out to be so well structured that it almost happened by itself.”

Our responsibility

Margreet continues: “Because we ourselves were so strongly committed to it, we were also able to communicate it well to the parents. Not all of them were immediately enthusiastic. But we could explain to them why we see it as our responsibility to include this subject as well. We also organise parents’ evenings about sexual development, where we discuss cases and debate healthy behaviour. At first, people often shift uncomfortably in their seats, but with the right presentation and the right speakers—provided to us by our Healthy School adviser—the ice is always quickly broken.”

Nutrition: no

With regard to healthy nutrition, Margreet instead chooses to leave responsibility with the parents. “We deliberately do not want to become inspectors of lunch boxes. We do state in our school guide that we aim for healthy lunches and that Mars bars and Snickers do not belong in them. We also make it clear that we prefer healthy treats. But no: beyond that, we will not interfere. So the Nutrition certificate is not in the cards for us, but that is fine.”

Sports and exercise?

“We are now looking into whether we can do something with Exercise and Sports,” Margreet continues. “That is also very much a priority for us. We have just received a grant, which we are using to offer remedial motor skills teaching to the children. That is very important, because motor skills support cognitive learning. Unfortunately, I cannot apply for the certificate yet, because I cannot organise sports activities after school. We are now seeing whether we can make that work in cooperation with our neighbouring school and the childcare organisations. If it is sustainable, we may well go for it.”

Maintaining the certificate

For Margreet, whether something will continue to have support in the long term is also decisive. After all, a thematic certificate must be renewed every three years. “This once again underlines the importance of intrinsic motivation. There is no point in obtaining a certificate only to lose it again after three years because the theme is not truly embraced at school.”

Margreet’s tips

  • · Obtain the Well-being certificate first, and take it from there.
  • · Check which subjects matter most at your school.
  • · Discuss with the team whether everyone is willing to commit 100% to a subject.
  • · Realise that the lesson programmes will guide teachers through the process.
  • · Dare to make clear choices: this is what we will do, and that is what we will not do.