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The Skin Fund is organizing the fifth Sunshine Week for childcare locations. This year, the week will take place from 8 to 12 May. Following last year’s success, when more than 2,000 childcare locations (over 100,000 children!) participated in Sunshine Week, this year is also set to be a cheerful week for the children.
Perhaps, like many schools in the Netherlands, your school would like to devote more structured attention to well-being. What can you already do to get off to a good start next school year? Perhaps the most important tip is this: don’t just opt for separate interventions, but start thinking about coherence and sustainable, long-term implementation. What does this mean in practice, and where do you start? The practical tools from Welbevinden op School can quickly help primary and secondary education teams get started. The Trimbos Institute has listed them for you in a blog.
Recent research by the Mulier Institute shows that the use of motor skills tests and tracking systems in primary schools has increased significantly. By now, four out of five primary schools measure their pupils’ motor skills. Municipalities are also increasingly using assessment systems. What is their purpose, and where can you learn more about such systems?
School garden or no school garden… From 22 to 26 May 2023, all schools and school garden supporters can take part in School Garden Week! With the motto: Sowing together, growing together! School Garden Week is an initiative of the School Garden Alliance and Jong Leren Eten.
Primary, special and secondary schools, as well as vocational education institutions, were able to apply for one or more incentive schemes from Gezonde School in recent weeks. Never before had so many schools registered to work on a healthy lifestyle for their pupils or students with the help of these schemes. It is currently no longer possible to apply for an incentive scheme from Gezonde School; registration of interest closed on 18 April.
King Willem-Alexander officially opened the King's Games on Friday morning, 21 April, at De Scheg Sports Centre in Deventer. Together with 850 children from five primary schools, the King took part in the King's Breakfast. Afterwards, together with 10 children – in celebration of 10 years of his reign – he kicked off the sporting activities and visited a number of them.
The majority of students in special (primary) education are reasonably sexually resilient. This is shown by the report Peil.Burgerschap einde speciaal (basis)onderwijs 2020-2021 [Civic education assessment at the end of special (primary) education 2020-2021] by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education.
For years 7 and 8 of primary school, a free interactive lesson on ‘hearing and sound’ can be booked via the VeiligheidNL website. The prevENT committee, part of the scientific association of ENT doctors in the Netherlands, is happy to visit with an ENT doctor or doctor in training to tell the pupils more about how to prevent hearing damage.
The conference Relationships and sexuality, the most natural thing in school, welcomed more than 200 participants on 29 March. The participants spent the entire afternoon immersed in Relationships and sexuality, a health theme of Healthy School. They received tips, examples and new information. Attention was also paid to successes and the desired vision for the future of relationship and sexuality education in schools.
The Youth Health Care, Prevention and Health Promotion subcommittee of the Netherlands Youth Institute has recognized Rutgers' Kriebels in je buik teaching package as 'well-founded'. The teaching package on sexuality for children aged 4 to 12 aims to contribute to the safe and healthy sexual development of young children.
Primary schools can register for the second edition of the Gezonde Smikkelweken until the end of April. This vegetable inspiration program takes place during the final three weeks before the summer holidays and is aimed at children in grades four through seven. The Gezonde Smikkelweken was created through a collaboration between initiator Stichting Spoony, Smaaklessen, the Voedingscentrum, Stichting Goeie Grutten and Jong Leren Eten.
Sufficient physical activity is essential for children’s cognitive, social and motor development. Nevertheless, children spend a large part of the day sitting down. So it’s time to get children moving more! But how can you ensure more physical activity throughout the school day in primary education, along with a good alternation between (seated) learning and movement? The Active Learning platform can help you with this.
Teaching children about their bodies from a positive perspective, talking about what they like, autonomy and a positive self-image: that was what the Week of Spring Fever was about this year, from 20 to 24 March. According to Rutgers, part of that message was lost because of fake news. But what the week mainly produced, according to Rutgers, was many valuable conversations between skilled teachers and parents, and tens of thousands of children talking about what they like. Rutgers looks back on a turbulent week.
Are you going to cook at primary or secondary school? On the landing page of the Netherlands Nutrition Centre – www.voedingscentrum.nl/kokenopschool – you will find lots of tips and inspiration for cooking healthily, sustainably and safely in the classroom. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre also offers many healthy and delicious recipes. Children and young people who cook under proper supervision and learn about food know more about food and have greater confidence in their own cooking skills. A cooking lesson at school is therefore a great opportunity!
What is the current state of school cafeterias in the Netherlands? And what impact does a healthy cafeteria have on students? The Netherlands Nutrition Centre, together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, would like to map this out. Will you take part too?
Starting in the 2023/2024 academic year, it will be possible to take the new eight-month postgraduate programme Specialist in Sports-Oriented and Healthy Schools at Leiden University of Applied Sciences and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences.
From 24 to 31 March, the Media Ukkie Days took place, a themed week organised by the Media Literacy Network to raise awareness of media literacy in the upbringing of children aged 0 to 6. The Media Literacy Network looks back on a fantastic campaign week in which countless partners, (grand)parents, educators and children all worked together.
How do you develop a well-considered, well-founded and broadly supported policy on smartphones in the classroom? Kennisnet is organizing a free webinar on Thursday, 20 April, on this topic. The webinar is intended for school leaders, administrators, teachers and others who can take the initiative to develop smartphone policies for schools.
The official media-use guidelines for children aged 0 to 6 are increasingly being exceeded. This is evident from the in-depth Iene Miene Media study 2023, ‘Balance: being active with media’. The study was presented at the start of Media Ukkie Days, which take place from 24 to 31 March.
From 29 March, primary and secondary schools with pupils from vulnerable neighbourhoods can apply for a subsidy via www.schoolmaaltijden.nl to provide a meal. In doing so, the government wants to ensure that no child has to sit at school with an empty stomach. The Nutrition Centre welcomes this and can help schools give this initiative a healthy and sustainable interpretation.
4 April is National Outdoor Learning Day. Jantje Beton and IVN Nature Education celebrate the fact that on this day, thousands of teachers at schools throughout the Netherlands are increasingly giving lessons outdoors. Not only on that one day of the year, but all year round.
With a cooking lesson for Year 6 pupils at the Prins Mauritsschool in Delft, TV chef Sandra Ysbrandy launched the fourth edition of Kok in de Klas on Monday morning, 26 March. On Monday 26 March, Tuesday 27 March and Wednesday 28 March, 120 chefs will give cooking lessons to pupils in Years 6, 7 and 8. In total, more than 3,000 upper-primary pupils from 120 primary schools are taking part. Schools from special education are also participating.
Are you looking for inspiration for concrete activities to work on a healthy lifestyle with the children (aged 1.5–4) in your daycare every day? Then use the new daily routine cards from Gezonde Kinderopvang.
Over the past year, there has been a great deal of discussion about boundaries and crossing them. For the Week of the Spring Fever (20–24 March), Rutgers has beautifully translated this into the basics: ‘What do I like?’.
How does Lennart van der Meulen, Teacher of the Year 2022, deal with bullying and the way students treat one another? This is discussed in an interview that School & Safety conducted with him. Lennart has been teaching Year 5/6 at De Gouden Griffel primary school in Berkel en Rodenrijs for more than seven years.
The schoolyards of more than 60 percent of primary schools in the Netherlands are almost entirely paved. This is revealed by a survey conducted by IVN Nature Education among more than a thousand parents and teachers. Hundreds of thousands of children spend their break time day in, day out on these tiled playgrounds, which are often too hot to play outside in warm weather and suffer from flooding during heavy rainfall. The results differ by province. Noord-Brabant, Overijssel and Gelderland stand out positively, as the provincial authorities there have genuinely worked to make schoolyards greener in recent years.
From 24 to 31 March 2023, the Media Ukkie Days will take place. During this themed week organised by the Media Literacy Network, attention is drawn to media literacy in the upbringing of children aged 0 to 6. We all want children to grow up healthily with media. That is why parents and caregivers pay attention to the right balance between media use and other activities. And between sitting still and being active. This year’s theme is ‘Balance: moving with media’.
“During the eight years that they are with us, we try to make children aware of nutrition, exercise and a healthy lifestyle.” This is what deputy headteacher Marieke Melis of De Vuurvogel primary school in Helmond says in an interview with the Eindhovens Dagblad.
On Wednesday afternoon, 29 March, Gezonde School is organising the conference Relationships and Sexuality, the Most Natural Thing at School through Gezonde School’s Healthy Relationships & Sexuality support programme. Gezonde School is taking this opportunity to celebrate successes and give schools a platform. To reflect on where we started and where we are now. To look ahead to the future and consider what is needed to continue focusing structurally on the theme of Relationships and Sexuality in education and to embed the theme.
Stichting Special Heroes Nederland is committed to creating a classroom full of Healthy students! Through the Healthy Heroes programme, the foundation enables students in special education to experience the positive effects of a healthy lifestyle in a playful way, using various teaching methods. They learn how to consciously make healthy choices for themselves, such as exercising more and eating more healthily, and what impact these choices have on their well-being.