Children and Youth Physical Activity Program 2026–2030 proceeds to decision-making
In Janakkala, a movement program for children and young people for 2026–2030 has been prepared. The program aims to strengthen children’s and young people’s daily physical activity, wellbeing and participation, and to create conditions for an active, movement-rich everyday life.
A shared direction for promoting movement among children and young people
The movement program brings together the objectives and measures by which movement among children and young people will be promoted in Janakkala in the coming years.
The starting point is the idea that movement is part of the comprehensive wellbeing of children and young people. Movement can be promoted in many everyday environments and through different services – early childhood education, schools, leisure time, and built and natural movement environments.
The program has five central objectives:
- Establishing a culture of practice: movement is part of every child’s and young person’s everyday life.
- Increasing participation: children, young people and families are involved in planning, implementing and evaluating movement.
- Developing operating environments: inspiring and safe environments enable diverse movement and the practice of motor skills.
- Enhancing the conditions for promoting physical activity in early childhood education and comprehensive education.
- Increasing cooperation: multidisciplinary collaboration between the municipality, families and various actors to support an active lifestyle.
Approving the program is the start of practical work
The aim of the movement program is not to form a separate document, but to guide the municipality’s activities and decision-making concretely in 2026–2030.
In implementation, it is essential that objectives are turned into concrete measures. This requires cooperation between the municipality’s different services, staff, children and young people, families, organisations and other local actors.
Responsibilities and cooperation structures are defined for implementation. This ensures that agreed objectives progress systematically and that their implementation can be monitored.
Progress will be monitored and activities developed
The implementation of the program will be monitored using existing data collection and evaluation tools. Monitoring may make use of, among other things, data produced by the School Health Survey, Move! measurements and the TEAviisari.
The purpose of monitoring is to form an evidence-based picture of how movement among children and young people develops and what effects the measures have. The information obtained will be used to develop activities and to plan future measures.
Incorporating children’s and young people’s views into development
Participation by children and young people is an important part of implementing the movement program. Their experiences and views can be used when developing activities, movement environments and opportunities to be active in everyday life.
The aim is that the voices of children and young people are heard in development work concerning them and that measures respond as well as possible to their needs.
A shared goal visible in everyday life
Promoting movement among children and young people is the shared task of the whole municipality. The success of the movement program requires long-term cooperation and commitment to common objectives.
After the program is approved, a key objective is to put the agreed goals into practice, monitor their implementation and develop activities based on the information obtained. In this way, the movement program can be visible concretely in the everyday lives of Janakkala’s children and young people in 2026–2030.
Movement as part of curricula and the everyday life of school and pre-primary education
The implementation of the children’s and young people’s movement program is closely linked to the local curricula of pre-primary and comprehensive education. Section 2 of the Basic Education Act has been amended so that pre-primary and comprehensive education must also promote an active lifestyle. The amendment came into effect on August 1, 2026.
In Janakkala, this change has already been taken into account in local curricula. The curricula for pre-primary and comprehensive education were updated with regard to movement in the education committee in May 2026. The movement programme also states that the objectives of the curricula and the movement program should support each other.
This is an important opportunity to make movement a permanent part of children’s and young people’s everyday lives. Promoting movement does not mean only physical education lessons or separate exercise sessions, but taking movement into account throughout the school day’s culture of activity: in lessons, during recess, in transitions, in learning environments and through various pedagogical solutions.
For example, Janakkala’s new pre-primary curriculum highlights functional tasks, learning through movement, movement breaks, outdoor learning, varied working methods and small everyday solutions that increase physical activity. The plan also emphasizes that promoting an active lifestyle is a shared task of the whole daycare.
The welfare committee considered the children’s and young people’s movement program at its meeting on August 20, 2026 and decided on section §53 in accordance with the decision proposals. The program will proceed in the decision-making process to the municipal executive and from there to the municipal council. Progress in the decision-making process will be followed on the municipality’s website.