An Opawa class of Year 5 and 6 students is among the first in New Zealand to trial a new toolkit – designed to promote a lifelong love of physical activity.

SportStart Home is a new resource designed to bring families together and promote a lifelong love of physical activity.

According to Sport Canterbury Chief Executive Julyan Falloon: “This opportunity comes at a time when concerning trends in childhood obesity rates among New Zealand children are at an all-time high. The initiative aims to combat the notion that Kiwi children have less opportunity to be active then the generations before them.”

For the students at Opawa, the SportStart Home pilot began on Friday the 26^th of October. The programme will run every Friday for five weeks, facilitated by Sport Canterbury, with the hope that it will continue beyond the trial period.

The children will experience a multitude of different activities aimed to help develop their fundamental movement and sports skills. The hope is that they will engage parents and caregivers to activate the home and local community environment, to play, explore and develop healthy habits.

If the programme is successful, it will be introduced by Sport Canterbury across a range of primary schools across New Zealand. This will, in turn, inspire a lifelong participation in sport and physical activity, through quality support, experiences and opportunities.

“We hope this will help make it easier for busy parents and caregivers to support their kids to get active at home.”

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