Categories: News

School children to be offered ‘taster sessions’ at sports festival

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1578" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;SND16-wk4-Sports&lowbar;festival&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND16-wk4-Sports festival" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" title&equals;"Photo courtesy of Jun Tanlayco Sports Images" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"266" &sol;>Nearly 400 school children will be given the opportunity to try a variety of sports at the ASB Sports Centre Schools Festival&comma; on Wednesday&comma; July 1&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Organised annually by Sport Wellington&comma; Wellington City Council and the ASB Sports Centre&comma; the event aims to give primary school-aged children a chance to &&num;8216&semi;have-a-go&&num;8217&semi; at an assortment of sports&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Children hailing from 13 local schools will rotate around five different sports throughout the day&period; Thirteen different sports are on offer ranging from cricket and basketball&comma; right through to the less traditional&comma; such as korfball and ultimate frisbee&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Wellington City schools-focused ASB Sports Centre Schools Festival is an accompanying event to Sport Wellington&&num;8217&semi;s annual Westpac Stadium Sports Festival&comma; which was first held in 2004 and incorporates schools from across the greater Wellington region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since its conception&comma; over 6000 children from 141 different primary schools within the region have taken part in the Stadium Sports Festival with scores of primary schools applying to take part each year&period; Due to this overwhelming interest&comma; Sport Wellington has been partnering with local councils to assist in running smaller sports festivals in their area&comma; leading to the development of the ASB Sports Centre Schools Festival&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This is the third year Sport Wellington&comma; in partnership with Wellington City Council and the ASB Sports Centre&comma; are running what has now become an annual event for Wellington schools&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Sport Wellington Community Sport Advisor&comma; Georgina Duindam&comma; says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The sports festival model allows sports providers the opportunity to showcase and promote their sport to children&comma; in the hope that they might discover a sport they would like to continue to participate in either through school&comma; KiwiSport-funded programmes or local sports clubs&period; It also allows the sport provider a pathway into the school&comma; while allowing teachers to view a sport session that they might be able to replicate in their own classes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Local sports really value the opportunity to showcase their sport at a grass roots level&comma; while the schools and their students enjoy a day out that allows their students to get active and discover some of the local sports on offer&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Ms Duindam says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Schools are paired with sports based on the sports ability to provide programmes to the school&comma; or have a club accessible in their area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sport Wellington delivers the event with the aim to increase the number of school-aged children playing sport and improve their access to participation <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;developing-opportunities-at-school-with-a-view&sol;" title&equals;"opportunities" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">opportunities<&sol;a>&period; In doing so&comma; they also aim to support sports organisations in creating links with schools&comma; and increase both sports organisations and the schools capabilities of delivering meaningful &&num;8216&semi;taster sessions&&num;8217&semi; in a variety of sports&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong style&equals;"text-align&colon; right&semi;">Photo courtesy of Jun Tanlayco Sports Images<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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