SUPPLIED
Sport Waikato chief executive Matthew Cooper said Project Energize was right for its time but did produce a shift in getting more children active.
A replacement has been found for the 16-year-old Project Energize programme which was controversially dumped from Waikato primary schools a year ago.
Sport Waikato, the regional Ministry of Education office and Waikato District Health Board will jointly run the Government-funded Healthy Active Learning programme in the region.
The tripartite will receive a slice of the $47.6 million funding set aside for the national initiative.
Project Energize involved Sport Waikato staff or “energizers” running physical activity programmes for tamariki in all primary schools with a focus on nutritional guidance.
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Christel Yardley/Stuff
Waikato Principals’ Association’s Hamish Fenemor said he understood why Project Energize finished but some schools would miss out on being part of its replacement.
Healthy Active Learning will instead focus on helping teachers grow physical activity in their own schools.
Initially, it will only be offered to schools in areas deemed to be of the highest deprivation and with the lowest child physical activity participation rates.
Waikato Principals’ Association immediate past president Hamish Fenemor understood the need for change but agreed many schools would be disappointed the new programme wouldn’t be run in their schools.
“My school [Cambridge East] is one of them, we won’t get the same access as we’ve had in the past but it will be a matter of seeing if there is an alternative source of funding for other programmes.”
Lawrence Gullery/Stuff
Sport Waikato energizers ran programmes at schools and at community events to promote physical activity among primary school children.
Fenemor said when he studied at teachers college, there was “more of a grounding in the PE side of things” than the current training system.
“And that’s not helping. We have put more focus on reading, writing and maths rather than looking at the broader picture of a child’s development.”
It has been a year since Sport Waikato restructured, dropping Project Energize and with it 40 staff.
It was criticised by some primary schools for ending the long-time programme but chief executive Matthew Cooper reiterated it was not producing the expected results.
“Project Energize was right for its time … but we have not seen a dramatic shift towards increasing physical activity levels of young people.
“We know that one of the most important and influential settings where tamariki experience physical activity is through health and PE in their primary school.
“So it makes sense to target this and support teachers to feel capable and confident to deliver in a way that doesn’t add to their workload.”
The change followed a three-year pilot called Taakaro Ora, funded through Sport NZ, and run in north-west Hamilton schools.
Cooper said it worked with kaahui ako, or communities of learning, showing teachers how to grow the physical activity levels of tamariki.
Sport Waikato was now working with six kaahui ako in Waitomo, Ōtorohanga, Tokoroa, Putaruru, Ohinemuri and Waihi, a total of 48 schools.
It would also continue the work it started during the pilot with schools in north-west Hamilton.
“Engagement has also begun in Thames and Ngāruawāhia with plans to extend the initiative in 2022.”
The national initiative targeted primary and intermediate schools, Sport Waikato made the decision to extend the Waikato version to early childhood education [ECE].
“We see ECEs as critical to the physical activity foundations of tamariki and an important setting for a child’s first and most influential experiences of movement through play.”
