Students and teachers from seven local secondary schools have entered the WSS ISO Champs in April. Pics / Sport Whanganui.
Students and teachers from seven local secondary schools have entered the WSS ISO Champs in April. Pics / Sport Whanganui.
They may still be stuck in their homes due to Covid-19, but that doesn't mean Whanganui's inter-school sports rivalries are completely dormant.
The Whanganui Secondary School (WSS) ISO Champs is nearing the end of its first month – an internet-based physical activity competition organised by Sport Whanganui .
They provided students and teachers with an online form to each log their daily training or activity routine, with proof provided by adding a picture or video.
The overall hours are added together for each school, with representatives from seven local high schools and colleges having taken up the challenge.
As of Thursday, Sport Whanganui had received over 560 'responses' on Day 24 of the championships.
"I've called it responses because each day or each few days that they log their daily activity is called a response. It will be some of the same kids," said co-ordinator Clare Lynch.
"It's their intentional daily physical activity, whatever that might be, and they do that daily, or every second day, or however they're doing it in their little bubble. "They log whether they do it with somebody else or whether they do it by themselves."
As well as adding to the overall total for their schools, there is also an internal competition component as students list their specific school house on the form with those tallies being recorded at the same time.
Lynch said it was not just the teenagers who have taken up the challenge.
"The teacher response rate has been really awesome as well, we were expecting lots of young people because they select whether they're a teacher or a student when they log in.
"Probably half way into the challenge, half of the responses were from teachers, so they're really on board in setting an example."
The current leaderboard also makes for an interesting study.
Under normal circumstances, a combined WSS sporting event would usually see powerhouse Whanganui Collegiate up the top, likely followed by some combination of Whanganui High School and Cullinane College.
In the ISO champs, it is Whanganui Girls' College who have taken up the charge – as of Thursday morning their representatives have logged around 220 hours, with current runnersup being fellow girls school Nga Tawa Diocesan with just under 150 hours.
The co-ed Cullinane was third with 100 hours, followed by City College with around 60 and then WHS with 50, while Collegiate lags behind.
The figures as of Thursday show Whanganui Girls College has embraced the challenge.
"Collegiate, I know their bubble's been really active because I've seen heaps of photos of things on Facebook of what they've been up to, but they've obviously not taken it up as well, I guess, as the others," said Lynch.
Sport Whanganui has organised a similar ISO Champs for the region's primary schools.
"Theirs is more around their wellbeing…paying more attention to their mental health, strength of their whanau, and spirituality as well," said Lynch.
"So we've set some weekly activities that either the parents can do with the students at home, or the teachers can do it when they go back to school, or on their online forum."
Lynch said they are likely to keep the WSS ISO Champs going for at least the length of the level 3 lockdown.
"Then from there we'll make a call, if the majority are coming back to school if things are a little bit more normal."
As well as bragging rights, Sport Whanganui will arrange a tangible prize for the top school in the champs.
It is not too late to get involved in the WSS ISO Champs, secondary school students and staff can download the form at https://forms.gle/5gPgiKd637aTrD597 to log their activity hours for their schools.
The Primary School ISO Challenge form can be downloaded at https://forms.gle/1E2YggwnkNL3CfZb7.
