More continuous exercise, also during after-school hours: this is one of the goals of the Special Heroes Dutch Foundation. Regional project leader Fardou Visser regularly visits Kleurryk Special Education (SO) in Drachten to encourage students to live a healthier and more active life.
And with success, says gym teacher Gildert Bijlstra from Kleurek. “We have offered a clinic with dance lessons in all groups via Vardo from Special Heroes Dutch. Recently, an after-school dance group has appeared, taught by dance teacher Samira from SDC Drachten.
Vardo adds that there will be a snowboarding clinic soon. “We want to introduce the children to different forms of sports in an accessible way. The lessons are given by someone outside the school. We hope that the children will play sports regularly at school or at the club.
Because this is the added value of Special Heroes Holland, Gildert continues. “External experts come to our school to share their specific sports knowledge in order to encourage children to engage in sports structurally.” It's great that some students enjoy exercise so much that they decide to really take up the sport. “It is important for children from special education to connect with different sports clubs.”
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In addition to sports and exercise, Special Heroes Holland offers further learning paths such as Food and Drink, Art and Culture, Nature and Technology, Relaxation and Relationships, and Work and Sharing. “This way, schools and healthcare organizations can choose their own programs that are tailored to them,” Vardo explains.
In practice, this means that Vardo visits Kleurryk and, along with the team of teachers, examines what is going on at the school and what components of the program they need. “At Kleurryk, in addition to sports and exercise, they also choose food and drink. We want to relieve institutions of their worries by helping them develop healthy habits among students and allowing them to participate in society.
cooperation
In this way, Verdo cooperates with fourteen special education schools in the province of Fryslan. Each school can cooperate with Special Heroes Dutch in its own way. “My role then is to look for people at local sports clubs who would like to offer clinics.”
But her role goes further, as the head of the regional project explains. “I look for subsidies and work with all kinds of organizations, like here in Smollingerland with the municipality and Sportbedrijf Drachten. In this way I act as a kind of connector.
Gildirt is happy to help Vardo, so he can focus on his lessons at the gym. With the arrival of Samen Kansrijk, the new special education school in Drachten, he hopes to expand the cooperation with Special Heroes Dutch. “Then we will have a larger number of students and a school building with a lot of space. This provides more opportunities to start with Special Heroes Clinics in the Netherlands.
