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Fietsersbond and Wandelnet are joining forces. Together with JOGG and the Knowledge Centre for Sport & Exercise, they are working on an activity-friendly school environment. They are helping you get started with the Most Equitable School Environment campaign.
Monday, October 6 is Teacher’s Day. As a teacher, you do much more than just teach. You sometimes have to deal with challenging issues. At the Netherlands Youth Institute, read how a designated officer for child abuse and domestic violence – Marieke Kuiper, an internal student support coordinator – Hoda Yamani, and a teacher – Jasper Albers, deal with them.
Schools work towards a tailor-made Dynamic School Day over a period of three years: every 30–45 minutes, a movement break interrupts sitting (and learning) and allows pupils to experience the positive effects of physical activity. It is a change to the school day, based on a shared vision and developed into a plan that is refined each year. But how do you ensure that this change is embedded in the long term? Dynamic School Day has a solution: a Moving in and around School (BioS) team.
Parents see positive effects on their school-age children thanks to the grocery card. This is shown by research conducted by the Red Cross among more than 8,000 parents who receive such a card. Nearly 60% say that their children eat more healthily, and 28% of the children go to school feeling more positive. More than half of the parents also experience less financial stress. Yet for more than a quarter of the parents, the food assistance is not sufficient. Structural solutions to poverty remain urgently needed.
Nathalie Hoekstra, a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, publishes an article series on the wij-leren.nl website that examines in greater depth the social processes within the classroom and the mechanisms behind bullying, identifying it and intervening. The roles of bullies, victims, bystanders, and teachers are explored. The articles also show how social safety can be strengthened purposefully. Part 2 focuses on the many faces of bullying.
On 22 May 2026, hundreds of primary school pupils (years 6/7/8) across the Netherlands will become researchers for one day. They will go outside to investigate biodiversity in their own schoolyard during the Schoolyard Safari. They will also interview their classmates about how connected they feel to nature. The Schoolyard Safari is part of Alle Scholen Verzamelen!
This week is Anti-Bullying Week (22–26 September). A positive school climate in which bullying has no chance to take hold is essential for students’ development. But how can a school put topics such as bullying prevention or resilience into practice? In an interview with the Kader Primair monthly magazine, Mirte Klomp and Vivian Kruitwagen-Van der Gaar explain the Healthy School approach based on concrete questions from school principals.
The online messages posted by rival youth groups in Beverwijk and Heemskerk are causing unrest among schools in the region, young people and their parents. Stichting School & Veiligheid offers advice, support and guidance to schools in such situations.
Jantje Beton, IVN Nature Education and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) are starting this school year with the construction of 80 new Healthy Schoolyards in 25 municipalities across the country. In doing so, the organisations are building on the Healthy Schoolyards programme, through which hundreds of schoolyards in the Netherlands have already been improved with more nature and greater challenges. Healthy Schoolyards ensure that children exercise more, play in more varied ways and learn better.
Nathalie Hoekstra, a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, publishes a series of articles on the wij-leren.nl website that explores in greater depth the social processes within the classroom and the mechanisms behind bullying, identifying it and intervening. The role of bullies, victims, bystanders and teachers is examined. The articles also show how social safety can be purposefully strengthened.
Students with the same talents and abilities do not always have the same opportunities to develop. As a teacher, you play an important role in breaking through this inequality. What can you do to give all your students the same opportunities? The Netherlands Youth Institute has listed it for you.
Would you like to start school gardening in 2026? Then be sure to keep a close eye on the social media channels and website of Alliantie Schooltuinen from 6 October through 28 November. During this period, Alliantie Schooltuinen will share lots of information and inspiration to help you plan and create your school garden.
More and more young people vape, and more and more young people do so every day. Some of them would really like to quit, or are thinking about it. The new ‘Quit Vaping’ Quit Plan was specially developed to help young people aged 14 and over get started. Claire de Nerée tot Babberich is a project manager at the Trimbos Institute and an expert in helping young people quit smoking and vaping. She wrote the blog below about it.
From 22 to 26 September, Stichting School & Veiligheid is organising Anti-Bullying Week. The week will kick off with a webinar. During the webinar, we will look at the classroom through a different lens: not as a group of separate individuals, but as a close-knit team in which everyone matters. This year’s slogan – Look through a different lens and see: your class is a team – closely aligns with the underlying theme: school connectedness.
A good physical activity policy helps schools contribute to the motor, social and emotional development of pupils in a planned and structured way. That is why KVLO and the Knowledge Centre for Sport & Physical Activity have created a Sample Physical Activity Policy for Primary Schools.
Would you like more water to be drunk in the new school year? Then put tap water in the spotlight with your class as a healthy and sustainable thirst-quencher during National Tap Water Day on Wednesday 24 September. This way, your students will discover why tap water is healthy and how to turn it into a festive drink!
Eveline van de Putte is a writer, trainer, storyteller, and someone with a mission: to bring more attention to gender and sexual diversity, especially in places where it is challenging. Such as education. “I believe in the power of stories. A story stays with you; it touches people. That way, you can set real change in motion.”
Does your school care about healthy Relationships and Sexuality? Or would you like to focus more attention on this soon? Sign up now for an enjoyable and inspiring evening on 19 November from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Louis Hartlooper Complex in Utrecht, hosted by Gezonde School.
At the start of the school year, Smaaklessen is giving away 125 vouchers for free groceries for a cooking lesson with a cooking video. Primary schools can choose from no fewer than five different recipes! Use the cooking video for inspiration and give pupils in years 6, 7 or 8 a delicious cooking lesson. The registration period runs from 15 September through 3 October 2025.
For some children, the culture at school is different from the culture at home. For example, there may be different rules, values, norms and expectations. This can be difficult for children, because children develop better when their different living environments are aligned. It can also be difficult for teachers when the home culture of their pupils differs from their own. The Netherlands Youth Institute provides information about the cultural gap between school and home.
The summer holidays are over, and schools are starting up again. For many children, summer was a time of playing outside, climbing trees and exploring nature. How can we prevent that feeling of freedom and connection with nature from disappearing abruptly as soon as school starts? According to Vincent van der Veen, product market manager for children and nature at IVN, the answer is closer than you think: in the schoolyard. He wrote the opinion piece below for AD.
Next week, many preschoolers will begin a great adventure: they will go to primary school for the first time. It often takes some getting used to for them. They will encounter an unfamiliar teacher and many new children. And they have to learn to carry out instructions. In their new environment, they develop in all kinds of areas. The Netherlands Youth Institute has listed how parents can support their child in this. The information is also interesting for education professionals.
All schools will be starting again next week. Do you work in education as a teacher or school leader? At the Netherlands Youth Institute (NJi), you will find reliable knowledge and practical tools to help you in your work.
On 18 August, the official kick-off of Veilig Verkeer Nederland’s national ‘Our schools have started again’ campaign took place at Dirk van Veen Nuts primary school in Breda. VVN project leader Puck Bakema is seeing growing concern about the increased traffic around schoolyards. In an interview with VVN, she explains the importance of the campaign and discusses the role parents play.
Of young people in the Netherlands, 61% regularly or even frequently experience performance pressure, usually when they are engaged in school or studying (47%). Young people made this clear as the doors of schools and further education institutions reopen. Of the young people surveyed, 68% say they themselves have an influence on performance pressure. These and other results emerge from a recent study by State of Youth NL, an initiative of KidsRights. KidsRights chair Marc Dullaert is calling on politicians, educational institutions and the VO Council to work with young people now to put an end to unhealthy performance pressure.
On Wednesday, 18 March 2026, municipal elections will be held in the Netherlands. These elections are an important moment to cultivate fertile political ground within municipal politics, so that school gardening can continue to grow and flourish in your municipality over the next four years.
Would you like to reflect on the theme of food waste with your class during Waste-Free Week (8 to 14 September)? Starting in September, take part in the renewed Waste-Free Quiz for a chance to win a fun prize: one of the Blik op je Eten sets.
Parents are just as tolerant of risky play as they were in 2018. This is shown by research conducted by VeiligheidNL. Tolerance has therefore not declined, despite societal developments that make risky play more difficult for children.
It can be difficult for teachers to work with assertive parents who have overly high expectations of their child. Parents always want the best for their child, but they may – unintentionally – put pressure on the child. Or overlook what the child is actually capable of and wants. This can have adverse effects on the child’s well-being. How do you, as a teacher, deal with this? The Netherlands Youth Institute offers tips.
Would you like to get the school year off to a good start? A healthy lunch helps children get all the nutrients they need to learn and play. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre has posters for primary schools to display at school.