Waimate High School Newsletter

PALS WORKSHOP

On Wednesday the 8th of March, 10 very excited Year 7 and 8 students piled into a van and headed to the Southern Trust Event Centre in Timaru for a PALs (Physical Activity Leaders) workshop.
    by Emma Setterfield

Their mission was to create some games and to come up with new ideas to encourage physical activity in their school and community. They decided on the catch phrase "be keen to take your eyes off the screen", with the idea of encouraging students to put their phones and chromebooks down at lunchtimes to engage in some new and exciting activities. These could include, but not limited to, both mainstream and non-mainstream games (or a combination of many different games), walking groups and fundraisers such as discos, jump jams and tournaments. They also thought it was important to use their new skills by sharing their ideas with the local primary schools with the possibility of running a few sessions with the younger children.

Image by: Emma Setterfield


Their next steps are to consult with their peers to find out what they would like to have available to them, to come up with a plan with the other PALs in the school and to put that plan into action.

Image by: Emma Setterfield


They also thought that feedback was very important so at the end of each session, they would like to ask the participants what went well for them and also any changes they would like to see in future sessions.These PALs students were a pleasure to take to the workshop and showed insightfulness, fantastic ideas and an abundance of enthusiasm! 

Image by: Emma Setterfield