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Youth is a period with many opportunities for growth and development. It is therefore a good time to invest in promoting mental health and preventing mental health problems. The Trimbos Institute's knowledge dossier ‘Young People's Mental Health’ provides information and practical guidance for this purpose.
Better fitness, fewer behavioral problems and a stronger connection with nature. And those are just a few of the benefits of a green schoolyard. Researchers from three Dutch universities have mapped out these and many other benefits. What does this show? Learning and playing in a green schoolyard strengthens not only physical development, but also mental and social development.
The province has opened a new round of the Green Healthy Schoolyards subsidy scheme. Applications can be submitted until 1 October 2023. Through this scheme, schools in heavily paved neighbourhoods, where many children grow up in poverty, are given the opportunity to transform their schoolyard into a green oasis. This creates a green and playful learning landscape for the pupils and a green living room for the neighbourhood.
In a few weeks, it will once again be a familiar sight: busy traffic around the primary school as children are dropped off and picked up. That is why Veilig Verkeer Nederland is calling on parents and children: walk or cycle to school. This makes the school environment safer and helps children gain important traffic experience. Is this topic in need of extra attention? VVN helps parents, schools and municipalities with practical tools or a more comprehensive program.
From 12 to 17 June 2023, the sixth edition of Healthy Youth Week was organised. During this week, all the Great People from the JOGG network draw attention to creating a healthier environment for young people. JOGG looks back on a successful week, during which people throughout the country called out: ‘Make healthy the norm!’ In 2024, the seventh edition of Healthy Youth Week will take place from 10 to 15 June.
Paying attention to healthy and sustainable food at school can significantly improve the eating habits of primary school children. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre has a special page with information and materials to help you get started with lesson packages, developing a food policy, organising healthy school meals and many more useful tips.
Playing outside is crucial for children’s physical and mental development. Yet not all children play outside equally often, and a downward trend is even visible. Fortunately, as an education professional, you can encourage students to spend more time outdoors. Lilian van den Berg, a specialist in inclusive sports and physical activity, and Eline Geschiere, a specialist in physical activity behaviour, work at the Knowledge Centre for Sport & Physical Activity. In an article on Gezonde School, they explain the importance of playing outside and offer tips for creating an inviting and challenging school playground.
HoorToren, an interactive teaching package about hearing for the entire primary school developed by VeiligheidNL, has been recognized by the Nederlands Jeugdinstituut as a well-substantiated intervention.
From 25 to 29 September, Stichting School & Veiligheid is organizing Anti-Bullying Week. In a blog post, Bente van Gameren, Sexual Integrity Adviser at School & Veiligheid, calls special attention to the position of LGBTQI+ students.
Monday, 6 November is the day: the fourth edition of the Week of Motor Skills is here. The week runs from 6 to 9 November. Professionals involved in sport and physical activity, for example in education, healthcare or municipalities, can now register for various online knowledge sessions and a live event. This year, the week focuses on: ‘Encouraging a lifetime of sport and physical activity’.
In May 2023, Mathijs ter Bork and Ian Mostert from IVN, Jeroen Onck from Utrecht Natuurlijk and Cedric Ryckaert (BLES-Vlaanderen) visited various green schoolyards in Rotterdam. Ter Bork wrote the report below about it.
This summer holiday, 90,000 children at 1,000 after-school care centres will set out to discover vegetables during the third edition of the Healthy Smikkelweken for after-school care centres. The packages will be delivered throughout the Netherlands between 13 July and 31 July.
Marijke van der Zalm is a project manager and social safety adviser at Stichting School & Veiligheid. In the blog below, she explains how the theme of Anti-Bullying Week (25–29 September), ‘Good to one another!’, helps combat bullying.
How can you, as a professional—for example, in childcare—consciously include risky play when encouraging physical activity? Alles Over Sport has summarised it for you.
It's the holidays. That means no school and more time together. As a parent, you may be concerned about your child's screen time. Whether you are going on holiday or staying at home, this can sometimes be difficult. The Netherlands Youth Institute offers tips.
E-cigarettes (with and without nicotine), like regular cigarettes, are covered by the smoking ban. Wherever a smoking ban applies, it also applies to e-cigarettes. For example, in and around a school building. A school is required to ban the use of e-cigarettes and maintain a smoke-free school grounds.
In the municipality of Tilburg, almost all primary schools have a green schoolyard or are working on creating one. An increasing number of primary schools are also giving outdoor lessons in the green schoolyards.
All pupils at OBS Hannie Schaft in Zandvoort receive food education. The driving force behind this is teacher Karina Veeren, who cleverly involves the school environment, such as parents, supermarkets and other shops, as well as the Healthy School adviser. What does the school do in terms of food education?
With the conversation cards, you can talk about gender and sexual diversity in the classroom in an accessible and playful way. Students learn to talk about their own feelings and those of others. They gain knowledge, broaden their perspective and develop a respectful attitude towards diversity.
More and more schools that remain open during the summer are also offering their pupils a meal during that period. One of those schools is the Tamar School in The Hague. Omroep West and Jeugdjournaal report on it.
Did you know that in the Netherlands we never eat a quarter of all our food? All that food is grown, processed, transported, chilled and heated. We put a lot of energy into it—energy that warms the earth. It is therefore all the more important that we waste as little food as possible. So join the Food Waste-Free Week from 11 to 17 September. Everyone who eats can participate, including schools!
In the Netherlands, 36 municipalities are already working with ‘Growing up in a Promising Environment (OKO)’. OKO is a Dutch prevention approach for municipalities. The approach focuses on preventing alcohol, drug and tobacco use among young people by creating an environment in which they can grow up happily and healthily. Municipalities that want to start working with OKO from 1 January 2024 can register from 3 September to 13 October 2023. As a municipality, you can apply for funding for the implementation of OKO through the SPUK scheme.
Is your school a Healthy School and do you want to do more to promote a healthy lifestyle among your pupils or students? Then take the golden step: deepen your work within a health theme or seek connections and broaden your approach with other themes. Health scientist Vivian Kruitwagen, responsible for the further development of the Healthy School approach, explains how to take this step.
During the Week for a Healthy Youth (12–17 June 2023), several primary schools and daycare centres experimented with celebrating instead of bringing treats. They did this with the celebration boxes from Wie jarig is viert feest.
Children who learn how vegetables grow and are prepared come to like vegetables more. This is shown by research conducted by PhD candidate Marla Hahnraths and professor Onno van Schayck of Maastricht University. They carried out a programme run by Kids University in Venlo for grades 5 through 8 of primary school. A total of 19 school classes in North Limburg took part.
The HBSC study showed last year that mental health problems among girls in the Netherlands increased substantially between 2017 and 2021. At the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, researchers from Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute therefore conducted another large-scale study into the well-being of school students in autumn 2022.
Does the primary school where you work have plans for a new playground where children can play and exercise in a natural environment? But is your playground still a dull expanse of paving stones? Then IVN and Jantje Beton would be happy to help you take the next step towards a playground where children can be active to their heart’s content. Send them three photos of the playground along with a very simple sketch of your ideas and you could win €5,000 for your playground. Complete the form by 31 July at the latest for a chance to win. In total, IVN and Jantje Beton are making €5,000 available 10 times.
Healthy food and drinks to take to school. This is a good foundation for performing well at school and getting through the school year full of energy. Would you like to start the new school year well and healthily with your class? Then give attention to a healthy lunchbox with one of the new Taste Lessons about healthy lunches.
After seven years, the School & Safety Foundation has renewed the Digital Safety Plan. The digital tool helps schools actively address social safety and provides guidance on meeting the school's legal obligations.
Healthy School looks back proudly on 2022. By joining forces, efforts were made in 2022 to make a healthy lifestyle visible and tangible and to embed attention to it even more firmly in all schools within primary education, secondary education, special education and secondary vocational education.