Well-being at KG

High school years should, of course, be some of the best years of one's life. To ensure this, Kolding Gymnasium launched a three-year project called "Greater well-being through communities" in August 2020 with financial support from the Region of Southern Denmark. The project focuses on getting students at Kolding Gymnasium to participate in many positive communities where there is room for everyone.

Security and mutual respect

Specifically, the introduction of "class hours" has been used to work on creating good class communities with a high level of security and mutual respect. In addition, a student team has been established in each class, tasked with initiating activities for the class in their free time to strengthen unity.

In addition, there have been a wide range of voluntary activities across all classes after school. These activities have ranged from volleyball, soccer, kayaking, yoga, and badminton to poetry club and debate club. These activities have supplemented activities such as musicals, school magazines, and party associations, which were already available at Kolding Gymnasium.

Well-being makes you want to learn

In their teaching, teachers have focused on incorporating social relationships into the classroom, so that academic content is conveyed to a greater extent through working methods that promote positive relationships. Teachers have attended courses on new working methods and exchanged good ideas with each other.

The school's principal, Sune Hother Petersen, is impressed by the commitment that both staff and students have shown to the well-being project: "There is a special KG spirit, where there is a strong focus on everyone being part of the school community and participating in and contributing to it," he notes. He is particularly pleased about this because studies show that a high level of well-being among students also increases their desire to learn. He therefore expects that the well-being project will have the added benefit of leading to better academic results and ensuring an even higher completion rate at Kolding Gymnasium.

KG Club

One of the students who has made a great effort to promote community and the KG spirit at Kolding Gymnasium is Caroline Fenger Grondin, who will be graduating this summer. She is the chair of the KG Club association, which organizes various events to promote community. For example, in the week leading up to the winter break, KG Club sold roses for DKK 5, which could be given to a student or teacher whom you greatly appreciated. In the run-up to Christmas, activities such as a gift exchange, Christmas competitions, and a soccer tournament were organized.

Kolding Gymnasium's well-being project is now halfway through and has just been evaluated by the consulting firm Pluss on behalf of the Region of Southern Denmark. The assessment is that "through a targeted focus on well-being activities and student involvement, the project has developed an effective model for increasing student well-being and sense of belonging at KG."

Continuing until 2023

The project will continue to receive support until June 2023, but the experiences have been so positive that Kolding Gymnasium will continue the well-being activities even after the project period has ended.