Going from playing in the nursery to teaching at a school desk can be tough for children starting school. Now four schools and four kindergartens in Trondheim municipality are trying out how the start of school in Norwegian schools might look in the future. In order to make the children feel better in their first years at school, they are trying out new ways of working together with the kindergartens and after-school care. The project has been named “Bedre school start for all”. Now they are trying out what the start of school might look like in the future. Photo: Hannah Solberg-Wåtland / news More physical activity Åsvang school is one of the schools participating in the project. Here, the school day has switched to after-school care. There is beading, playing and dancing. At Åsvang school, more collaboration with after-school is being tested. Photo: Hannah Solberg-Wåtland / news Despite the fact that most things look normal, the students here have a different everyday school life. For two years, the school and SFO have tried to work more closely together and adapt the school day more to what the children need. For the children in 1st and 2nd grade, this means school days with more focus on play, physical activity and diet. Anders Levoll says that a different school day suits his son well. Parent Anders Levoll says his son thrives on more physical activity at school. Photo: Mathias Kartveit Mikalsen / news – He is someone who responds very well to learning combined with activity. I don’t think he would have responded as well to sitting quietly at a desk and learning from a blackboard. – We are very satisfied. He also expresses this by the fact that he likes going to school, he says of his son’s school situation. Lego play at SFO is in full swing when Anders Levoll picks up his son. Photo: Mirja Flodin / news Well-being important for completion One reason why the “Bedre Skolestart for Alle” project started is that a better experience of the first years at school can help more people to complete the entire educational course. – What we know is that we do not succeed in giving all children good experiences related to belonging, security and well-being, says Helene Berntsen Svensson. She is responsible for the project. It is partly carried out on behalf of the Norwegian Directorate of Education and Trondheim municipality and is part of a research project. The project has now been ongoing since 2019. Helene Berntsen Svensson is the project manager for “Bedre schoolstart for all”. Photo: private – We need children and young people to have a good time, and then we have to look at what it is we do that makes it possible for it to be experienced well and meaningfully in their everyday arenas, she says. Svensson believes, among other things, that the education system must be adapted more to the needs of the youngest children, so that more people will experience the connection between the nursery school and the school. – We want to develop practice for the best for children and families in Trondheim, but we also want to contribute to national knowledge development, she says. Katrine Vik Tollaksen is one of the teachers working with one of the models in the project. Photo: Mathias Kartveit Mikalsen / news Theme-based learning At Åsvang school, they work to ensure that the students experience a coherent day. This includes, among other things, theme-based learning. – We no longer distinguish so much between the school day and after-school care, as has traditionally been done, says Katrine Vik Tollaksen, teacher in the second year at Åsvang. The idea of the collaboration is that the pupils can bring the activities from the school day into the play at SFO. If they can work on the same topic, the children get a practical approach to what they have learned during the school day. – Right now we have the topic of health, which cuts across many subjects. The starting point is to create a meaning and a whole for the children. Illaria (7) shows off the medical equipment in the hospital room. Photo: Mirja Flodin / news Through the theme of health, the teachers together with the staff at SFO have created a hospital room in one of the playrooms. Among the students playing in the hospital room we find seven-year-old Matilda. She is excited to play hospital. Here at the “hospital”, Matilda gets to play patient, while waiting patients trip impatiently in the waiting room. Photo: Mirja Flodin / news – We get to try out what we know about such things on other children. Take a vaccine, a blood injection and sew up the skin of others, she says. More engaged children Musammat Hasnahena Akhter is a child and youth worker at SFO at Åsvang. She also worked here before the project was introduced, and sees that the commitment among the children has grown. Musammat Hasnahena Akhter notices a difference since before the project was introduced. Photo: Mathias Kartveit Mikalsen / news – Before we were used to arranging guided activities for the after-school children, but now we see that we don’t need it as much. What the children work on during school, they continue with in free play, says Akhter. Musammat Hasnahena Akhter thinks the children are now better at playing with things they have learned during the school day. Photo: Mirja Flodin / news She admits that there may have been a little more life after the project was introduced. – Now we notice that the children are a little more curious and therefore there is a little more noise. But we can stand it. It’s for the children’s good, she smiles. It is important to find your own motivation The project is still ongoing, and it is difficult to say anything about the results yet. Tollaksen is so far positive. – I think we have achieved a lot of good things in relation to what we want to focus on. Despite more play during the school day, she does not think that her pupils have learned less. She thinks that play and learning go hand in hand, and that one often flows into the other. She also hopes that a more free school day helps the children find their own motivation for learning. She believes it is important to learn this early in the school career. Teacher Katrine Vik Tollaksen wants the motivation to learn to come from the students themselves. Photo: Mirja Flodin / news – That’s when the learning happens, we think. Especially for the youngest. We also believe that it is the starting point when they get older, she says. – Without motivation, we think that they will not stay with the learning themselves. Then it becomes more like they are doing it because someone else has decided that they are going to do it, says teacher Katrine Vik Tollaksen.
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Schools in Trondheim are testing a softer start to school through the project “Bedre skolestart for alle” – news Trøndelag
