Students’ health is key to school performance and to develop into a dynamic adult. During and after the pandemic, there has been a drastic decrease in children's and adolescents' health and wellbeing. This was the reason move with IES was launched. #movewithIES is a national IES health project that started in the year 21/22. We began with 5 schools, and today work has expanded to 10 schools: Eskilstuna, Borås, Uppsala, Länna, Östersund, Solna, Jönköping, Umeå, Helsingborg, and Södertälje.
The project may be called #movewithIES, but this does not mean that it only works to improve students' physical health; it also aspires to improve their social and mental health. Every #movewithIES school has its own appointed Health Motivator who is responsible for running the project locally by implementing materials and tasks from the Health Coordinator. The Health Coordinator is connected to HQ and has the overall responsibility for systematic quality work, planning, and running of the project nationally. The Health Coordinator also works in close collaboration with the central student health, making #movewithIES a part of the IES Elevhälsoplan.
Studies have shown that students who stay active and healthy will not only improve their ability to focus, but they will also improve their knowledge requirements, making #movewithIES strongly connected to our ethos: high academic aspirations & expectations and a calm & safe learning environment.
#movewithIES helps students stay active by ensuring that students have 1-2 brain breaks/day while providing a variety of different break activities during breaks. Helping students stay active during breaks will also improve their social health since it helps to decrease the number of conflicts on the schoolyard.
#movewithIES also strives to educate students on the topic of health. In collaboration with the author Maria Dufva, we have created educational movies and lesson plans connected to the different chapters in her book “Värsta bästa hälsan.” We also use a web-based mental health tool called “Det syns inte” to educate students on the topic of mental wellbeing.
The ultimate goal with #movewithIES is to create and establish healthy habits that will stick with the students, giving them the best possible conditions for a happy and successful life!