Using the Movewell Resource to Empower Tamariki

21 August 2023

Nicola Elliott from Maraeroa School has had some amazing success with her class following on from a Movewell professional development session that the staff undertook alongside their Healthy Active Learning Advisor, Tania Bartley. 

Nicola split her ākonga into two teams and then gave them a page from the Movewell book with the instructions for the game they were going to learn. As a team, they had to work together to understand the rules and develop strategies to be successful. They also had to write their own strengths that they have to offer, and as a team then discuss this as part of their strategic planning.   

Some of the feedback from the students included, “Everybody participated to learn the rules so that no one was left out.” “Doing this helps us to be more independent in the future.” “We won’t always have someone by our side to help us so we can do stuff all by ourselves.” “The game was fun and kept everyone active.” 

“It was so empowering to them to have the instructions that are written for teachers and to work together to understand it (without someone talking at them). We played the game this afternoon and it was very successful,” said Elliott.

This is an amazing example of how to use the Movewell Resource in an authentic and empowering way. Tamariki are leaders in their own right and their imagination and innovation are as good as ours, if not better. Putting them in a situation where they take control of their learning gives them the confidence, challenge and leadership opportunity that has a huge benefit to them as ākonga.   

We would recommend this model for any teacher wanting to empower their tamariki. Although this specific model would work better with senior ākonga, we can see an adapted version of this working for juniors. The teacher could introduce and play a new game with the class and then spilt them into smaller groups and get them to come up with one way to change the game. You could even introduce the STEP (Space, Task, Equipment, People) inclusion model to use to help them come up with a change. The ākonga could then teach their new version of the game to the class. We also have a Movewell Scavenger Hunt that could be used with your ākonga. This would help them to get to know the resource better. 

One parent shared their feedback with us, saying, “I absolutely love this!! Playing sports is not just about sports. It brings together life skills (discipline, social, coping, etc). So many learning dispositions can also come out of playing sports. Adding theory to practical provides rich learning opportunities for our tauira. Kei runga rawa koutou Maraeroa. Tau ke!”