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

2010 Workshops

Kiwidex

Recently several schools have undertaken Kiwidex modules. Kiwidex modules are available for any school that wants to participate.

The workshop takes a small group of teachers through the application of the Kiwidex resource and how to adapt it to suit classroom sized activities. It includes copies of the resource for teachers.
A good chance to attain a new resource, go through a short workshop for teachers on physical activity provision, and can also touch on other areas of activity in the school if required.

For more information about what the Kiwidex module can include, or to book a date please contact Michael Mercer.

Student Sport Transitions Project

A new proejct has kicked off in Upper Hutt looking at secondary school aged student participation and transition in sports. As a result of the Kiwisport funding made available, Activation has developed this proejct in conjunction with Sport Wellington to investigate the drop off rate of school leavers and ease this transition back into club sport.

This new project aims to increase sport and recreation participation by Upper Hutt secondary school students and school leavers; and intermediate school children who are moving into secondary school. Traditionally, the model of participation in sport for the individual in New Zealand has been participation of children through clubs, then participation through the secondary school, and back to the club as adults. Research from the NZ Secondary School Sports Council shows us that participation rates in traditional sport at school leaver age drops significantly as does participation from intermediate aged children when they move onto secondary schools. Moreover, often individuals do not participate in sport in an organised manner following their departure from school, or movement to another school.

The project will work in a range of areas, looking at up skilling senior students and volunteers in our community to increase the capacity to offer sporting opportunities, promotional work of opportunities that exist, buddy up schemes to assist transtitions into secondary school sport, a portal website for young people to access key sporting contacts across the country - wherever they intend to persue further education or work, developing a database of leavers and their participation information and intensive work with local clubs to enhance their provision and promotion to young people. Through these actions and more we wish to acheive our four key objectives

• To get more Upper Hutt teenagers staying in sport after they leave secondary school
• To get more Upper Hutt intermediate aged school children to stay in sport when they transition to secondary school
• To get more Upper Hutt young people developing a love of sport and gaining a lifelong participation in sport
• To improve the skills and capacity to deliver grassroots sport to young people by schools, clubs and recreation organisations.

Any questions about this project please get in touch with Michael Mercer, Schools and Youth Activator.

Volunteer Promotion

As a result of feedback from principals and the Parents Project that Activation runs, a social marketing campaign has occurred targeting parents in schools to promote volunteering.

Activation staff have been out at your schools trying to encourage more parents to volunteer. They have been discussing the many benefits of being a volunteer and the ways which they can get involved in your school.

Hopefully this has increased the awareness of our community and you may see a few more parents on the sideline and helping out with school events and sports teams.

If there is anyone you know of that would be great to get involved, please put them in touch with Michael.

Upper Valley Primary School Sports Association Events for 2010

Chairperson - Andrew Herrick (Totara Park School) andrew.herrick@totarapark.school.nz

Term 3	Rugby	3rd Aug	TMP
	Soccer	24th Aug	TMP
	Multi-Sport	16th Sep	Petone Indoor
Term 4	Touch	26th Oct	TMP
	Athletics	9th Nov	Maidstone

A school focused duathlon will also take place on 19 September. 

Secondary Schools Practical Recreation Project 2010

The 2010 practical recreation programme is kicking off in the first week of school! This project runs alongside the physical education department in Heretaunga College. It offers a number of students the chance to learn some fresh and exciting work skills while still attending school and remaining in the school environment. The pathway demonstrates the possibilities for careers in this sector.

The course runs for one full day per fortnight, and is supplemented by blocks of time required to fulfill some aspects of the course such as obtaining a first aid certificate and the completion of volunteer hours. The emphasis is on how the community can support a healthy lifestyle by showcasing the resources that the city has to encourage participation and increase knowledge.

This course fills a current gap in the sector which struggles to attract and retain suitable employees. It also leverage off community group and organisation experiences in the recreation and health sector, taking advantage of Upper Hutt community strengths.

Aim:
To provide practical experiences for traditionally non-academic learners in secondary schools which extend their knowledge and skills in the recreation and health sector whilst encouraging them to remain in the school environment.

Objectives: 

-	Provide an opportunity for students to sample practical experiences in the recreation industry and gain knowledge about healthy lifestyle’s through demonstration in real life scenarios while enabling them to remain in the school environment.
-	Provide students with tools, to use in the future in their own communities, to foster and promote healthy lifestyles and physical activity to others.
-	Students gain a set of useful work qualifications including first aid, life guarding, event management, basic nutrition, as well as gaining work experience.
-	Students attend secondary school longer, are more engaged, and attitudes and academic progress in other subject areas are enhanced.
-	Transition into further education, training or the workforce for students upon completion of this course.
-	Sports and Recreation community group collaboration to provide an effective course for enhancement of the sector through investment in potential future employees.
-	Expansion of the hybrid in-schools programmes to improve work readiness.

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 project is underway and training oppoutunities, resources and support have been made available to the group. Over the next 9 months action plans will be developed with their schools and these parents will become the driving force behind a number of sports, recreation and health initiatives. 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 competions, fitness clubs, health and environment projects and many more! Our latest success is three of our parents have registered for a cycle skills training workshop! This will allow them to take students for a level one course back inside their respective schools. Well done guys!

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 Brendan's is the latest school adding to the Active Transport craze that has hit Upper Hutt over the last few years! They will be starting their research phase of the process term 3 and kick off any actions to impliment early in 2011.

Lately Plateau school has had some amazing achievements, including a great Fancy Feet Friday as part of Movin’ March! They also have walk to school Wednesday and Friday’s on a regular basis and have plans underway for many more initiatives for term 2.

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.

It seems as if the Upper Hutt school community has taken up the challange of active transport and is racing ahead with these environmentally friendly and healthy activities.

School travel plans are available for any school in Upper Hutt to sign onto – so listen out for other exciting active transport initiatives that come out of their neck of the woods!

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

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