What is an Active School?
What is an Active School?
An Active School encourages children in primary and intermediate schools to be active for at least 60 minutes a day, and depending on the child’s needs, will teach basic movement skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching a ball, through to higher level skills such as sports coaching.
The “Active Schools” initiative is endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and SPARC, and was piloted in Counties Manukau in 2003/2004. Today the programme can be found implemented in schools across the length and breadth of New Zealand.
This highly successful programme takes up to 2 years of in-depth work with one of our Counties Manukau Sports Facilitator’s to complete, and our service is totally free to schools in our region!
To take part in this exciting programme a school must first sign an agreement and be absolutely committed to developing an “active schools culture.” This means the whole school and its community (Board of Trustees, Teachers, volunteers etc) are all dedicated to the programme.
An Active School facilitator from Counties Manukau Sport will provide in depth support, starting with a collaborative plan of action to meet the needs set out by the school. The school is also provided with:
- a quality teaching resource outlining co-curricula and cross-curricula physical activity ideas and opportunities throughout the school day
- help for teachers to get the most from the Active Schools teaching resource
- support for local community-wide physical activity initiatives
The “Active Schools” philosophy is underpinned by three key messages:
- An Active School provides child centred physical activity (based on children’s needs, abilities and interests)
- An Active School takes ownership to sustain an active environment and physical activity programmes (the whole school community is involved)
- An Active School is part of and contributes to an active community (ongoing lifelong participation)
How do we become an Active School?
If you would like to find out more about Active Schools or become an Active Schools, please see our contact page or call, 269-0066, for your nearest friendly active school facilitator.
Active Schools is suitable for any school with Primary and Intermediate level pupils.
