Together we grow stronger. On this news page we share the latest updates, inspiring ideas and innovative solutions to make your journey even better. From new courses to real-life examples: discover everything you need here.
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How can you be an involved parent when your child is in primary or secondary education? The e-book by parent involvement expert Peter de Vries offers seven guidelines on what you can do as a parent for your school-age child. The book is available to download for free.
Recently, the first Specialists in Active and Healthy Schools (SSGS) graduated. This post-higher professional education programme was established by Monique van Ark, national project leader for the teacher training colleges’ ‘Specialist in Active and Healthy Schools’ programme at Leiden University of Applied Sciences. She talks about it in a Meesterwerk podcast. Daan Wassens, one of the SSGS graduates, also speaks in the same podcast.
De Kindertelefoon is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Children aged 8 to 18 can turn to it with a wide range of questions. What perhaps not everyone knows yet is that De Kindertelefoon can also visit your classroom, both in primary and secondary education.
Jantje Beton and IVN would like to know your attitude towards a Healthy Schoolyard and how they could support schools in creating one. They will use the answers to these questions to tailor the support available to schools in 2020 to your needs.
Over the past week, from Monday 2 through Friday 6 September, special attention was paid to the need for good sex education in schools. 3FM, in collaboration with Brandpunt, organized the #Kutvoorlichting campaign. Because… young people rate sex education with only a 5.8! Above all, they are missing information about pleasurable and desired sex and about how to express their wishes and boundaries. And they are right about that.
A refugee child in the classroom needs additional support. Wereldreizigers focuses on their social-emotional development and their connection with classmates. The teaching method can be used both in mainstream primary schools and in schools specifically for newcomer pupils. To introduce the method, Wereldreizigers offers a free trial package that you can use immediately.
VOLG MIJ, the student tracking system for physical education, has a completely renewed app with numerous new features from the start of the new school year. The user-friendliness and layout have also been improved.
Dutch children (aged 10 to 22) spend almost an hour more per day on a phone, tablet or laptop than they themselves consider responsible. The difference between the average screen time of children living at home and what parents consider responsible is even greater: almost 1.5 hours. Moreover, most children and their parents regret that children spend so little time playing outside nowadays.
What Golden Tip does your school have for working on a healthy lifestyle? Share your school’s best idea and inspire other schools. Who knows, your school might win the second edition of the Healthy School Inspiration Award. All primary, secondary and vocational education schools may participate. The Healthy School Inspiration Award 2019 will be presented during Healthy School Day on 31 October.
Southern Limburg still stands out negatively nationwide when it comes to health. This is shown by De Volkskrant’s interactive Health Map, based on data from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the 25 municipal health services (GGDs), published in 2018 in the Health Monitor. Schools in Southern Limburg are now trying to encourage children to eat vegetables and exercise.
You may have heard of it or may even have already taken it. The MHFA course, in which you learn to provide first aid to people with (incipient) mental health problems. As of this year, the MHFA Youth course is also being offered in the Netherlands.
From Sunday 22 through Friday 27 September, the Healthy School Study Tour Iceland will take place. In the run-up to the tour, you will receive information about the trip every Wednesday. In part 4, we focus on the programme.
What should you do as a parent if your child is at risk of dropping out of school or needs support to continue attending school? The Sprint Card is a useful tool for organising an alternative to multidisciplinary consultation, to prevent discussions with educational and care institutions from breaking down. The Sprint Card has three objectives: parents in charge, the child at the centre and taking real steps.
How do you motivate students to exercise more? Gijs Hosman from the website www.gymspiratie.nl has listed a number of possibilities.
On Monday, 19 August, the school year starts again for part of the Netherlands (‘South’). Did you know that after the summer holidays, almost twice as many traffic casualties occur among schoolchildren as during the rest of the year? To make sure everyone pays extra attention during this period, ‘The schools are starting again’ banners and posters from Veilig Verkeer Nederland will once again be displayed in your neighbourhood. Together with municipalities, schools and businesses, VVN is calling especially on motorists to be more considerate of schoolchildren cycling in traffic. Be extra alert yourself with these tips!
From Sunday 22 to Friday 27 September, the Iceland Healthy School Study Visit will take place. In the run-up to the visit, you will receive information about the trip every Wednesday. In part 3, we focus on the history of the Healthy School in Iceland.
On Wednesday afternoon, 9 October, the national Jong Leren Eten 2019 thematic afternoon will take place at the Netherlands Open Air Museum in Arnhem. With the theme ‘learned young, inspired for life’, the participating parties aim to draw attention to food waste from the perspectives of health and networking.
The Healthy School theme of Nutrition (primary education) also focuses on good oral health. Schools can use various Healthy School activities for this purpose. The Poetsbus has recently also been officially recognised as a Healthy School activity.
From Sunday 22 to Friday 27 September, the Healthy School Iceland Study Visit will take place. In the run-up to the visit, you will receive information about the trip every Wednesday. In part 2, we focus on the Healthy School in Iceland.
Started early means winning early! Exercise has a positive effect on children aged 0 to 5. This is evident from the literature review conducted by Amsterdam UMC on behalf of the Knowledge Centre for Sport.
Easy to organize and inexpensive—that is essentially the secret behind the success of The Daily Mile: simply running for fifteen minutes during school hours. In the Netherlands, hundreds of schools have signed up to the concept, which originated in Scotland, within three years; worldwide, nearly 9,000 schools are already taking part. Simple? A temporary hype? Thanks to the spirit of the times, the parties that wholeheartedly support it and some good marketing, The Daily Mile suddenly seems to have been brilliantly conceived and to offer unprecedented possibilities.
With desks, school uniforms and a large blackboard on board, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science will join the Canal Parade during Pride Amsterdam on Saturday, 3 August, with its own education boat. Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven will sail along with dozens of pupils, students and teachers to celebrate that everyone should be able to be themselves at school.
From Sunday 22 to Friday 27 September, the Healthy School Study Trip Iceland will take place. In the run-up to the trip, you will receive information about it every Wednesday. In part 1, we focus on the country and its education system.
How can you make a school building healthy and sustainable in an affordable and efficient way? Many school boards and municipalities want to get started with their school buildings. Translating this ambition into practice is often difficult. During the regional meetings of the Fresh and Natural Gas-Free Primary Schools innovation programme, you can learn more about the topics relevant to your specific situation.
The Green Schoolyards Overijssel programme aims to green all schoolyards in Overijssel in 2025. The Province of Overijssel makes €1,000,000 available annually for this purpose. A school can receive a maximum subsidy of €10,000.
There is a great deal of physical education teaching material in moving images available on the internet. If you search on YouTube, it often comes from many different international sources. Dutch physical education teacher Rob Nieuwenhuis has now posted around 260 ideas for gym lessons, divided into themes, on his YouTube channel Gym Idee. The database is freely accessible.
Alcohol, smoking, drugs and gaming. Sooner or later, most parents have to deal with a child who discovers one or more of these things or comes into contact with them. So how should you deal with this? What information, tips and resources do you need? And what role does the school play in all of this? This was investigated through the National Parent Panel, an initiative of Ouders & Onderwijs and Stichting Opvoeden.nl.
Three new Healthy School activities have recently been added to the activity database on the Healthy School website. These are the activities below for the theme Relationships and sexuality:
When a girl becomes unintentionally pregnant, it is distressing and emotional. Suddenly, she (and her partner) are faced with the difficult question of how to deal with it. What options does she have? Who can help her?
A school environment – lessons, the school building, the school grounds and the school zone – can encourage children to exercise more. Research also shows that more exercise improves children’s performance in arithmetic and mathematics and helps them concentrate better. In addition, according to teachers, it has a positive influence on the atmosphere, behaviour and attention of children in the classroom.