Municipalities in Park City designated as Frontrunner Rich School Day

Beginning May 2022, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science opened a grant for the Forerunner Project Rich School Day. This grant will be divided among 45 national Forerunners Rich School Day. The Ministry has announced that we have successfully passed the selection procedure and have been officially designated as a national forerunner Rijke Schooldag. In the first grant year, we as a local coalition Parkstad will receive an amount in the amount of €586,000.- And that is especially good news for our school-age children.

Supplementing class days with additional activities

The Rich School Day stands for a regular school day with additional activities in the areas of sports, culture and broad talent development for all students. This can take place in primary and/or secondary education.

In Kerkrade, we already offer school-age children a number of additional activities that we would like to develop further. One example is the Healthy Primary School of the Future program. Various activities are also offered to pupils in the other municipalities in the Parkstad region. We work together in this and share our experiences. That is why municipalities in Parkstad have also jointly submitted the subsidy application.

The precursor path offers room to further develop the offering

With the Rich School Day, the national government is eager for students in primary and secondary education to develop. This is also part of the current, national coalition agreement. Municipalities, together with education and various other partners, can form a local coalition. This local coalition must meet a set of Requirements. After an intensive selection process, it is determined whether the local coalition will be designated as one of the 45 national frontrunners Rich School Day. These precursors can expand their current offerings to other locations and deepen their content for three school years with the help of additional funding. In addition, knowledge sharing with each other is an important aspect and the forerunners are asked to help think about a structural approach and investment from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. 

The Parkstad region has been identified as a national forerunner Rich School Day

The application we submitted on behalf of the Park City municipalities, along with a large group of partners, focuses on the following three components:

1. Expanding the program The Healthy Elementary School of the Future (GBT).
2. Expanding activities broad talent development
3. Setting up an extracurricular offer, centrally located in specific neighborhoods, containing various activities in the areas of sports, culture and broad talent development. We set this up together with partners in and around the neighborhood.

On June 24, we received the decision from the Ministry of OCW stating that we have successfully passed the selection procedure and are officially designated as a national forerunner Rich School Day. On July 7, the list of national precursors was published.

On behalf of the involved aldermen of Education in Parkstad, Alderman Schiffelers of Landgraaf said in response, "The fact that we have been designated as a forerunner Rijke Schooldag confirms that we are well on our way with our extra offer of sports, culture and broad talent development to our pupils. With this subsidy, we can help even more children discover their talents and get further acquainted with sports, culture and their environment. Thus we increase their future chances in the labor market so that later they can choose a profession that really suits them."

The exact follow-up will be announced in the coming months

The local coalition Parkstad will work in the coming weeks to further develop the activity plan. We will do this together with partners in the fields of education, sports, culture, welfare, etc. Based on the activity plan and progress, the amount of subsidy to be received for the coming years will be determined at a later stage.