Espoo looks for new model of physical activity for upper secondary school students
This autumn, Espoo has begun an academic year-long pilot where upper secondary school students are offered coaching focused on everyday well-being. The aim is to help young people find a physically active lifestyle and increase exercise in everyday life.
Espoo is piloting a physical activity programme (Liikkuva opiskelu) for students in upper secondary school in school year 2025–2026. The programme aims to create an operating model that gets the entire school community moving and to use well-being coaching for offering personal support and encouragement to young people who are not very active physically.
The project involves three upper secondary schools in Espoo: Leppävaara, Otaniemi and Matinkylä and their nearly 3,000 students.
– The project is part of the city’s service chain for exercise counselling and the Get Finland Moving project. We’ve taken inspiration for the project from the model of physically active studying in Vantaa and the coaching activities in Helsinki, but the point is to build our own model in Espoo, says Heikki Saloranta, PE development teacher in Espoo.
The purpose of physically active studying is to increase exercise throughout everyday activities at the school, such as break exercises, theme weeks and well-being events. On the contrary, well-being coaching is an optional course aimed at young people who get little to no exercise.
– We are aiming to reach over 10,000 bits of exercise for the entire school community during a school year, Saloranta adds.
The upper secondary school students will be supported by well-being coach Kati Lytsy, providing one-on-one coaching to students who volunteer. Lytsy works in all the three upper secondary schools and has regular weekly hours at each. The recruitment of another well-being coach is also underway.
– The idea is that there’s a low threshold for students to come see me. They can also contact me in Wilma and WhatsApp.
Initially, the project is looking for 20–40 students for individual coaching who need support in getting exercise or being more physically active.
– We help them try out different sports and give them advice on how to find sports groups in the city that they can join for free. We use the city’s sports facilities here in Leppävaara, such as the Leppävaara sports park, and in the other upper secondary schools, we use the schools’ sports facilities, says Lytsy.
Both Saloranta and Lytsy say that the challenge of the project is to reach the young people who get little to no exercise. That is why the project focuses on communication channels used by young people and why the well-being coaches are integrated into the everyday of the upper secondary schools.
– We hope that this project could help us prevent the decline in physical activity that happens to many after comprehensive school and to build good habits around exercise for young people, says Saloranta.
Support for all ages from Espoo exercise counselling
- In exercise counselling, our sports instructors provide support free of charge for starting doing exercise and maintaining a physically active lifestyle in a way that suits our everyday life.
- The process includes one appointment and four follow-up calls depending on what you need. During the appointment, a physical activity plan is drawn up in accordance with your situation and goals.
- Read more about exercise counselling and book an appointment.
Text: Thea Ekholm
This article was also published in an Espoo liikkuu advertising supplement in the Länsiväylä newspaper on 17 September 2025.