Ignition project in Iceland: Exploring well-being, safety, enjoyment and perceived competence in school subjects in children from 6 to 9 years of age.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to survey primary school children's perception of well-being and safety at school. A total of 146 Icelandic children in the 1-3 class 2023-2024, following the Ignition project, answered scale related to well-being and safety in school (6 questions) and 2 questions related to passion hour. 1185 Norwegian children in 1-3 class answered the same scale related to well-being and safety in school. A total of 129 Icelandic children in the 1-3 class 2020-2021, not following the Ignition project, answered 8 questions measuring perceived competence and enjoyment/likeability related to reading, maths, science and physical education. The results indicate that in two of the items the Ignition group (1-3 class) scores higher than the group from Norway: "How are you feeling at school?"; and "How much do you like your class?" In one of the question the Norwegian group scored higher: "Do you have friends at school?". The results show low to strong correlation (-0.008-0.50) between the 6 items related to the well-being and safety scale for the Ignition group (N = 146). For the children in the Norwegian group (N = 1185) the correlation is moderate to large from 0.31 to 0.55. The results did also show that the passion hour question "How do you like" was significantly higher than other school subjects. The question "How are you doing in" was significantly higher in passion hour than all subjects other than reading and physical education. The findings from this study indicate that passion hour and physical education are important factors for enjoyment and perceived competence. The results support the idea that restructuring the school day-such as in the Ignition project-can enhance children's well-being.