On Wednesday, 23rd June a bunch of brave Year 3-6 students donned their brightest fluro dress ups and joined students from other schools from all over Waikato to participate in the Junior Tough Guy and Gal Challenge.

This is a chance for primary and intermediate aged children to take part in New Zealand's biggest mud run series. Our students all completed a 1.5km (Year 3-4) or 3km (Year 5-6) obstacle course complete with swamp crossings, a spider web net climb, crawl-under obstacles, tunnels, hurdles, a climbing frame and not to mention mud, mud, mud and more mud! Our students had a blast - tackling each obstacle with a great attitude even if some of them were more than a little bit scary. We know that our children develop resilience by experiencing moments of tolerable stress. At the Tough Guy and Gal challenge, we got to watch our student's resilience develop as they were confronted with and then mastered a range of challenges that took them outside their comfort zone. What was especially awesome to watch was how supportive and encouraging our students were towards one another though out the race and at the finish line - whanaungatanga in action!

The day could not have happened without the support of our wonderful parent volunteers who helped transport, cheer on and clean up our competitors. Thank you! Also, a massive thank you to the master event coordinator Brent Taylor for making it possible for our students to take part in such a fun day. We welcome any other Year 3-6 student to come join in the fun in 2022!