The Norway Project

July 2016 from World Health Organisation: A small pilot project to include mindfulness classes in Kalnes upper secondary school in 2015 has expanded in the 2015/2016 school year to include more students and teachers. The project is part of Østfold County Council's (Norway) health-promoting schools initiative, one of its priority areas.

It aims to improve students’ and teachers’ attention and mental health through sessions of mindfulness exercises during the school day. The goal is to increase students’ motivation regarding schoolwork, improve learning outcomes, reduce stress, enhance concentration and reduce the number of students who drop out of school.

About the project
The project started with a small-scale pilot study that included 2 student groups from 2 different classes (30 pupils), and a group of 25 teachers. During the project period of 3 months, they held 5 meetings and conducted ten-minute sessions of mindfulness exercises during the school day.

Based on the positive, preliminary results, the project managers concluded that they wanted to continue and expand the project. Hence, the 2015/2016 school year included 6 classes, in addition to a resource group of teachers who were given training in mindfulness. During this phase, they tested mindfulness exercises in 2 different ways: general mindfulness and mindfulness exercises specific to or customized for different school subjects.
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Next steps
The project managers aim to focus more on the tailored meditation in the 2016/2017 schoolyear. Moreover, they would like to involve other teachers in the project in order to show them the positive aspects of prioritizing mindfulness exercises during the school day. Finally, they also hope to involve researchers to evaluate the project at Kalnes upper secondary school.