Queen's High School is one of eight schools nationwide which is piloting the Sport in Education project. Sport in Education leader Karen Palmer outlines the themes of the programme.
Queen's High School held an Olympic Day for all year 9 students to celebrate International Olympic Day on June 23.
The event was also as an opportunity to link the Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship to the school values of respect for people, places and learning.
The day started with an Olympic values assembly for the whole school and then the year 9 pupils participated in an event that involved them rotating in teams around eight different stations.
Each station had a link to physical education, sport, English or maths. Year 13 students supported the teams and staff at the stations and teams were awarded bonus points for teamwork, fair play and effort.
Olympic ambassador and ex-student Alison Shanks presented the winning teams with medals at a school assembly on July 5.
Alison had some clear messages about making choices and working hard to achieve your goals.
She also stressed how having good support around you was important and to seek support if you needed it.
Culture and values is one of the five workstreams used in the Sport in Education Project. Queen's High School is one of eight schools, nationally, that is piloting this project for three years.
The project aims to use sport to engage students positively at school, to encourage and develop leadership opportunities and establish working relationships with contributing schools and community groups.
The project also aims to increase participation in sport and academic achievement.
The other workstreams of the Sport in Education Project are curriculum, community, contributing schools and leadership.
Management and staff at Queen's High strive to recognise and nurture leadership across all levels of the school.
When students enter secondary school, they have often come from leadership roles in their primary schools.
Queen's encourages this leadership to continue by empowering the students to take on leadership roles in the school from day one.
All students are encouraged to get involved in the numerous clubs, councils, cultural and sporting groups in the school.
A recent report from the NZCER (New Zealand Council of Education Research) stated that ''the students see these [leadership] capabilities and skills as very relevant for their life and future work with others.
"All could describe how they had transferred some of the skills they had gained to other school activities''.
In physical education, all year 9 and 10 students participate in a sport education unit.
This model teaches the students the skills of the sport and how to coach, manage, officiate and evaluate the sport.
Students will often lead their peers for classes and need to plan and prepare accordingly.
The senior physical education courses have many components that develop leadership, self confidence and the ability to self-reflect and evaluate their performances. Year 13 students worked with small groups ''to get active''.
Two year 13 students ran a ''skip-it'' programme for all the year 9 students that culminated in massive ''skip-off''.
''We found doing physical activity in the morning made us more alert for the rest of the day,'' year 13 student Sam Keogh said.
At year 12, the students taught and ran the activities for the year 9 camps. The year 9 students really liked the fact the older students designed and ran these activities. They also liked that the teachers were able to complete activities alongside them rather than leading them.
''Getting to know teachers as people makes learning more fun,'' Jaz Fox (year 9) said.
''It helps teachers to know who is less confident so they can support them [at school].''
Working with contributing schools is important in establishing the links between primary and secondary schools.
It allows the students to feel more comfortable with the transition and to be familiar with the secondary environment and other students.
Queen's has several programmes working with contributing schools.
Year 11 physical education students coach year 3 and 4 students at St Clair Primary School as part of their Kiwisport achievement standard .
The student coaches work with small groups to teach the skills of a variety of sports, including cricket, basketball, netball, touch, soccer and hockey.
Community sporting organisations often provide skill-based coaching sessions for the student coaches so they have the knowledge and confidence to plan their own sessions.
Football South has been working with another group of year 11 students on a pilot futsal programme that aims to teach secondary school students the skills of the game and then to be able to coach primary school students.
Queen's is working with Bathgate Park School on this programme.
Bathgate Park teacher Cody Preston commented that his students enjoyed working in smaller groups and had a much more focused teaching time.
His students looked up to the student coaches as role models and often commented about how much fun they have.
He also was impressed with the skill level of the coaches and with the way they interacted with the Bathgate Park students.
Aerobics at Queen's High School is not only a sport but is also seen as a vehicle to teach the students to choreograph routines, edit music and to coach.
Aerobics students have been teaching routines to Tahuna Normal Intermediate students during the schools' sports time on Fridays.
These year 10, 11 and 12 students have taught 25 Tahuna students a competition routine they performed to the rest of the school at the end of term assembly.
It is hoped many of these students will continue to participate in aerobics with the support of Queen's students, teacher Helen Lowther and ex-student Annelise Lowther.
Year 9 students Lucy Elliott and Riley Haugh have returned to their primary school at St Clair Primary to coach the Jump Jam group.
''It was great to be back at my primary school and for some of the students to still recognise me,'' Riley said.
The Jump Jam group will perform at the Queen's showcase of dance later on in the year.
The Junior Sport Development programme at Queen's teaches year 10 students how to become effective coaches, how to plan coaching sessions, and the specific sports skills for coaching a sports team.
These students have been coaching hockey, basketball and netball at Tahuna Normal intermediate during the schools' sports time for all of term two.
Teacher Emma Stuart said: ''I am so impressed with the knowledge and positive approach the students take during the session. Excellent positive feedback to students. Students are focused for the whole time and can even be seen practising during the lunch hour''.
Queen's has recently laid turf on the tennis courts and this has enabled community groups such as Otago Primary Schools Hockey to utilise the schools facilities.
The involvement of community groups not only provides a connection with the school, it opens the doors to a whole range of opportunities for all students.
Physical education and outdoor education courses have experienced and skilled specialist providers. SportsMed Physio provides a physiotherapy clinic at school, twice a week.
Sport Otago supports school programmes, provides coaching courses and assists with Kiwsport funding applications.
The Sport in Education Project at Queen's encourages all staff and the wider community to use sport as a context across all aspects of school life to develop positive and engaging relationships.
Sport at Queen's is igniting a passion for life and learning.
