Bouncing a ball on a parachute to see how high it can get is the object of the game for these students from a range of schools in and around Dannevirke during the junior sports day at Huia Range School.
By Leanne Warr
Helping young children learn the value of teamwork while having fun was the idea behind a tabloid sports day.
Seven schools from around Dannevirke took part in the day, which included games such as an egg and spoon race, sack races and an obstacle course.
Around 400 children from Totara College, Weber, Dannevirke South, Norsewood, St Joseph’s, Huia Range and Ruahine Schools, all took part in the games, with about 20 tamariki in each team, completing 10 games in a circle.
Dannevirke South school principal Caroline Transom says she had been talking about the fact that all the school sports involved children from year four and up and the juniors didn’t really mix.
“We’ve been talking a lot about helping our kids feel a real sense of belonging in the Tararua [district], regardless of what school they’re at and feeling connected.”
She says in a lot of sports, the children mingle, but tend to be competing against each other, and she wanted to have a way for the children to mix.
“We’re really passionate about having a mix of schools in each of the areas for each of the groups, so the kids mix, the parents mix, and the teachers mix.
“The more that we do, the stronger we make Tararua [district].”
St Joseph’s principal Megan Seatter says Dannevirke’s Kāhui ako are “very collegial” and work really well together.
“We want our teams, our own staff and schools to be the same. We want the best for all the kids in Dannevirke.”
Part of that is also ensuring that the teams work closely together so that their students can feel confident about approaching those from any of the schools in Dannevirke.
“They need to be able to identify people within the community that they can get support from,” Megan says.
“It’s the same with our teachers,” Caroline says.
“Getting to know each other.”
She says the funding model is competitive based on the more children each school has, the better the funding.
“But that’s not how we work. We just want to work and support each other and make all our schools strong.”
Having the juniors' day was a way to include the younger children, as the senior students do a lot of sports and other activities, but don’t necessarily mix.
One thing Caroline’s school has done this year was ice skating where it was opened up to other schools to come in and she was talking about getting it back in two years.
“I know how difficult it is to have the resources to do some of that stuff, so let’s all work together to give everybody the opportunity.”
There have been four artists-in-residence at Rinitawa.