Student Well-Being Video

This School Keeps Kids Moving All Day. See How It Works

By Jaclyn Borowski — January 28, 2025 4:11
Assistant Principal Beth Bearor and kindergartener Rhys Gallup practice letters and letter sounds while walking through a rope ladder during P.E. teacher Robyn Newton’s action-based learning class at Vergennes Union Elementary School in Vergennes, Vt., on Nov. 18, 2024.

A short drive outside Burlington, Vt., sits Vergennes Union Elementary School. Aside from the building itself, little else in the school is sitting.

In this K-5 school, movement is everywhere. Dancing and stretch breaks in classrooms. Movement activities in hallways and out in the school forest. And a program that combines movement with learning while reinforcing literacy and math skills in the gym.

Through the support and collaboration of educators throughout the building, and the school’s longtime physical education teacher Robyn Newton, students are staying physically active as a regular part of their day.

Here, Newton and her colleagues explain how it works, and why movement is an integral part of the learning process in Vergennes.

Explore the Series

Beatrice Hesseltine, center, and her classmates in Alyssa Saunders’ kindergarten class take a movement break during class at Vergennes Union Elementary School in Vergennes, Vt., on Nov. 19, 2024.
Beatrice Hesseltine, center, and her classmates in Alyssa Saunders’ kindergarten class take a movement break during class at Vergennes Union Elementary School in Vergennes, Vt., on Nov. 19, 2024.
Jaclyn Borowski/Education Week

Jaclyn Borowski is the director of photography and videography for Education Week.

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