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Last Modified: 29 June 2009
About Activation
Active Schools
To build a culture of activity into a community an important target is the young people of the community and the key to the success of this is to work with schools in Upper Hutt to increase participation in physical activity by facilitating and promoting a range of opportunities along the continuum from exploration to excellence.
The School Activator will assist the schools to increase physical activity by:
- promoting physical activity
- assisting schools with sport and physical activity events and programmes
- provide advice and monitoring information to schools
Hip Hop Project
“It's about your own feel to the music, and
how you interpret it!” said Odessa To’o addressing participants at one of
Youth Week’s many programmes, Hip-Hop lessons at two of the local
colleges.Youth Week 2009 was huge for Upper Hutt with many activities occurring between 24 and 31 May including: Inspire – Young Achiever Awards, H20 Xtream youth freebies, the Luv 2 C U Afta 3 Project 09 launch and the Youthtown ‘Strobe’ dance party.
An exciting addition to this list was a Mayor’s Taskforce for Jobs funded collaborative project between Community Services and Activation at Upper Hutt City Council, based on information obtained from the Upper Hutt Youth Survey. “You wanted more opportunities to dance – so that’s why we went for this project” says Lillian Fougere, Community Development Advisor at the Council. This project got people up and moving, giving the local students a chance to sample one of the most popular forms of physical activity for young people – Hip-Hop dance. Instructor Odessa To’o showed the participants the ropes, teaching that, “Hip-Hop is not a negative style of dance, it’s an awesome way to release your emotion in a positive way – and it’s so big in New Zealand. You can really go far if you have the drive and commitment to do it!”
Based at two local colleges on two separate nights, a free introductory Hip-Hop lesson was provided for an hour to anyone in the community who wanted to attend. Michael Mercer, the Active Schools Coordinator indicated, “across the two nights we had 30 people participate in what turned out to be a fun and exciting taster opportunity to become involved in this action packed and exhilarating dance style.”
Several attendees were interested in continuing further with Hip-Hop – a big win for this project showing that removing barriers to participation is a great way to get more people positively engaged. Several spin offs include the investigation of further introductory opportunities similar to this one, and the potential for Odessa to work more within the Upper Hutt community. Odessa already instructs at Disrupt the Floor, a Youthtown Hip-Hop dance programme aimed at youth between 13 and 18 years of age. You can rock along to classes on a Thursday at 6.30pm, at Youthtown, Maidstone Pavilion, Maidstone Park. Classes are only a gold coin and will continue every week until the end of the year. These sessions cater for both beginners and experienced dancers. Further lessons may be starting shortly in Timberlea - more information will be coming soon!
The Activator
This newsletter comes out twice a term to schools with information about what is happening across the Upper Valley zone, around Upper Hutt and the region for schools and students in regards to physical activity, sports and health initiatives. It is a great source of information for students, teachers and parents alike. If you would like to subscribe please send your email contact to: mike.mercer@uhcc.govt.nz
Parents Project
Parents – a key member of any organisation, group or
activity. Someone who lends a helping hand where needed, washes the
uniforms, performs a taxi service for the kids, coaches the sports team
and generally functions as a gap filler in our community. These roles
and more are essential to many activities and without having them
probably would not exist. Activation has identified that parents are the batteries that make many sports and recreation opportunities and activities run. A project has been developed to work alongside schools and parents to help provide training opportunities and the support to enhance and assist parents to continue doing the amazing job they have, to get more parents actively involved, and to initiate any great ideas they would like to bring to the schools.
“This is a great project creating a myriad of opportunities for our students and young people to get active. By building the capacity of individuals who can utilise it through their current and future engagement with our schools and further transfer their knowledge to others in the community, we can make a huge impact towards getting our students more active more often.” Michael Mercer, Active Schools Coordinator at Upper Hutt City Council says.
The first meetings were held on June 3 and 4 and ten keen parents came along to learn about the project. Workshops will be held with parents four times a year and many training opportunities including first aid, event management, marketing, volunteerism, consultation, coaching and resource packs made available to participants.
Once training in the appropriate areas is complete, and an action plan developed with their schools, these parents will be the driving force behind a number of sports, recreation and health initiatives that can be developed. Each schools community actions will be unique with projects matching the need of their school environment. These could range from school sport teams coaching and management, organising school events, inter-school competitions, fitness clubs, health and environment projects and many more!
If you want to get more involved in your school community through this project, get in touch with your schools parent contact or contact Michael directly at Activation, Upper Hutt City Council.
Active Transport
St Josephs Primary School is charging ahead with
their active transport travel plan for the school. A couple of exciting
initiatives are underway that will make a big difference to how the
students get to school both increasing physical activity and health of
students, reducing parking issues before and after school and bringing
many extended benefits such as; new chances for students to socialise,
higher levels of attentiveness in the class and a new mechanism for
achievement for all students.A graduated rewards scheme is the cornerstone of this process, encouraging students to walk and cycle to school. This scheme is based on a gold, silver and bronze award levels and at each level students must show their commitment to active transport to school.
In addition to the rewards scheme, cycle and walk maps are being developed to show some of the best ways to the school and will be available for students and parents to go over, a cycle safety course is being investigated to give students a basic outline of road safety – increasing confidence to ride to school and a car pooling initiative is underway with keen parents.
Working closely with Greater Wellington Regional Council and Activation at Upper Hutt City Council, these initiatives are set to kick off in term three.
School travel plans are available for any school in Upper Hutt to sign onto – Birchville is the next school in line so listen out for other exciting active transport initiatives that come out of their neck of the woods!
Upper Valley Primary School Sports Association Events for 2009
Term 1
Cricket Starts Wk 4, 4:3:09 (6 weeks) Trentham Memorial Park
Swimming Wk 6, 17:3:09 H20 Xtream
Danish Rounders Wk 9, 7:4:09 ppt 8/4 Trentham Memorial
Term 2
Cross Country Wk 2, 10:5:09 ppt 17/5 Harcourt Park
Hockey Wk 6, 2:6:09 Fraser Park
Netball/Basketball Wk 9, 23:6:09 Taita/Walter Nash
Term 3
Multi sport Indoor Event Wk 3, 4:8:09 Petone Indoor
Rugby Wk 6, 25:8:09 Trentham Memorial
Soccer Wk 9, 15:9:09 ppt 17/9 Trentham Memorial
Term 4
Touch Wk 4, 3:11:09 ppt 5/11 Trentham Memorial
Athletics Wk 7, 24:11:09 ppt 26/11 Maidstone Park
Fitness Clubs
Activation is currently supporting the functioning and development of before school fitness clubs in Primary schools and their communities around Upper Hutt.
Schools fitness clubs focus on running and walking programmes or physical activity to get more children and parents, more active, more often. It generally runs once to twice a week before schools and it relies on the support of parents to function. It is a fun and easy way to get active and be involved in the school community. Children are also encouraged to bring a healthy breakfast to eat after the session.
Schools fitness clubs focus on running and walking programmes or physical activity to get more children and parents, more active, more often. It generally runs once to twice a week before schools and it relies on the support of parents to function. It is a fun and easy way to get active and be involved in the school community. Children are also encouraged to bring a healthy breakfast to eat after the session.
Some findings from other schools:
- enjoyment from parents and children
- it has become part of school culture
- it is a fun, inclusive, intergenerational programme that is not over organised
- the school’s have experienced improved levels of fitness in their children
- there is a perceived increase in concentration levels in participants
- it forms positive activity behaviours
- there is increased health and fitness for all participants including parents
Active Transport
Activation is also working with schools to promote active transport initiatives. Schools, with the support of Activation can promote walk to school days, to encourage active transport. If schools have enough parent support then another option is walking school buses. Walking school buses are a group of children on a set route walking to school in a bus formation, with an adult driver. Activation can facilitate the process of getting groups of parents together and forming walking school buses. The benefits of a walking school bus are children are healthier and more focused, there is less chaos at the school gate, and children develop road sense and have the opportunity to socialise with other children in the community.
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