This helps the youngest children enjoy school more

Well-being and school results are connected. But some children simply do not enjoy school. What can we do to help them enjoy it more?

Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson works at NTNU’s Department of Psychology and has spent many years conducting research on learning and schooling.

He and his colleagues are currently carrying out a project in Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland. 

Among other things, they have investigated whether more physical activity early in the day and a passion project class at the end of the school day affect how much the youngest children enjoy school.

The researchers therefore gave children in Years 1 to 3 at the primary school in Vestmannaeyjar more physical education and opportunities to choose activities at the end of the school day. They called this the passion project class.

More physical education = greater well-being

“In Iceland, children in primary and lower secondary school normally have two hours of physical education and one hour of swimming per week. But the children in our study were given two additional hours of physical activity per week,” says Sigmundsson.

That corresponds to around 72 school hours over the course of a school year. The researchers believe that this will increase the children’s well-being.

Passion project classes are even more popular

They have also introduced passion project classes.

“Physical education and the additional two hours of physical activity are scheduled at the beginning of the day. The pupils also have a passion project class at the end of every school day,” says Sigmundsson.

In the passion project class, the pupils can choose among activities such as painting, music, crafts, sewing and knitting, and food and health. On Fridays, the passion project class ends with singing and dancing.

Enjoy school more than Norwegian children

“Physical activity and the passion project class are the subjects the children both enjoy the most and feel they master the best,” says Sigmundsson.

The passion project class is the most popular and gives the greatest sense of mastery among all the school subjects.

And this holistic approach, which includes both extra physical activity and the passion project class, seems to be working.

“Our pupils score significantly higher on the question ‘Do you enjoy school?’ than a control group of Norwegian children,” the researcher says.

Reading skills also increased

The programme is part of Kveikjum neistann (Ignite the Spark) – an Icelandic educational research project with a holistic approach to schoolwork, developed by Sigmundsson. 

“This is the fifth year at Grunnskóli Vestmannaeyjar school and the third year at Lindaskóli school,” he says.

This study includes 146 Icelandic pupils. 1,185 children were included in the Norwegian control group.

Increased well-being is by no means the only good result the researchers have achieved. The children have also become better at reading, which is a foundation for improved performance in many subjects. 

“With focused training, good support and assessment, all the children in our project manage to crack the reading code by the end of their first year of school,” he says.

Exactly what the Minister of Education is calling for

Norway’s Minister of Education Kari Nessa Nordtun has called for measures that can increase well-being in primary and lower secondary school, motivate pupils, and include more arts and crafts in the school day.

“This is exactly what we are working on in Ignite the Spark,” says Sigmundsson.

Three schools in Norway have now introduced additional physical activity and passion project classes every day.

The project in Iceland will continue for another five years. But the researchers have already found several factors that can make the school day both more enjoyable and more effective for the children.

Reference: 

Sigmundsson, H. Ignition project in Iceland: Exploring well-being, safety, enjoyment and perceived competence in school subjects in children from 6 to 9 years of age, Acta Psychol (Amst), 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105654

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