THE SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

The National Secondary Schools Programme has been running since the end of 2002.  It was earlier identified that in New Zealand, the average age of our athletes was rising, that there weren’t enough ‘young people’ being introduced to our sports programmes.

Our particular focus is on increasing the numbers of young people with intellectual disabilities participating in the SONZ programme.  Our National Secondary Schools Programme provides sports training and competition opportunities for those under 21. 

The programme currently operates in Auckland , Wellington , Christchurch and Hamilton. We are planning to continue the development and start a programme within the Manawatu, Wanganui and Dunedin Secondary Schools.

Students in New Zealand with special needs are educated in a range of environments including mainstream schools, special needs units and special schools.  New Zealand school children are required to do a minimum of 2 hours Physical Education (PE) a week during school.  Unfortunately in some instances, special needs children do not always participate in meaningful PE programmes or sport.  There are few opportunities for students to represent their school in sporting activities.

In other cases students are learning important skills through sport that they can use in future life situations (team work + socialising), and their successes help build self confidence and self esteem, plus all the health benefits this activity offers the athletes.   

At present our programme involves training in a particular sport for 4-6 weeks and then participation in a competition (Ribbon Day).   To make the competition fairer the students are divisioned on ability so that they are competing against others of the same ability.  This allows everyone to achieve. 

Generally one to two sports are offered each term (with local variations), these are – swimming, athletics, soccer, tenpin, softball, basketball and cross country.  Wellington also has a small Primary Schools programme running and we plan to expand this nationally over the coming years.

There are now over 1500 students participating in the National Secondary Schools programmes. 

The feedback from the students, parents and teachers regarding the programme has been fantastic and all are keen for the programme to continue. 

For further information contact Melissa Sims on 04 801 2532 or via email