A West Auckland primary school has taken a novel approach over lockdown to help keep its students healthy, active and connected.

A partnership with Circability, a community-focused circus programme connecting people of all ages and abilities, has seen New Lynn Primary offer an online juggling workshop which has brought together students, their families and teachers for a fun series of online sessions.

Principal Greg Roebuck acknowledges that keeping connected during Covid lockdown times can be tough for everyone and schools especially need to be innovative and find different ways to keep children engaged.

“We have been looking at ways to support our students and whānau. The focus for us is on connecting wellbeing and physical movement as a way that can positively impact during this stressful time,” says Greg.

Working with Sport Waitākere’s Healthy Active Learning team and Circability, the school created an online juggling workshop that was suitable for the whole family. Led by Tobias Miller from Circability, the session focused on paper manipulation as well as ball juggling, building up in skill level as the workshop progressed. All that was required was paper and homemade juggling balls.

The success of the workshop saw a second session delivered the following week.

Sarah-lee Oto, Healthy Active Learning Advisor at Sport Waitākere, has been working alongside New Lynn Primary over the past two years as part of Healthy Active Learning, a joint government initiative between Sport New Zealand and the Ministries of Health and Education to improve the wellbeing of tamariki through healthy eating and drinking and quality physical activity.

After teaching for 16 years, she understands how devastating lockdowns are for schools and their learners.

“The impact is massive, both for our learners and our kaiako (teachers). We needed to look at new opportunities to support our teachers and to provide another platform that supports the connection with whānau, but without added expectation on teachers.

“Circability’s programme has provided a wonderful solution that meets the broad needs of the school, learners, teachers and whānau, and we have now cemented a great partnership with further ideas we’ll be looking at moving forward. It’s rewarding to see organisations like Circability that are evolving their offerings to suit these challenging times. For us, it has provided a win-win for everyone,” adds Sarah.

The rewards of the seemingly simple intiative have been significant across the school. For teacher Neelesh Desai, it delivered a welcome change to regular lockdown zoom time, bringing some unexpected benefits for teachers.

“It was great to see so many of our students getting involved with their whānau and having the opportunity for teachers to take a break. I saw quite a few of our teachers on there giving it a go. I don’t know who had more fun, the teachers or students. This gave us an opportunity as teachers to have fun with our students, focusing not only on their wellbeing but also ours.”

The Circability Trust has been Auckland’s Community Circus since 2012, providing programmes for a variety of groups as well as holding shows, forums, conventions and professional development. Community circus is a social art form that uses circus skills to promote personal and social development and connects people from all backgrounds.

Article added: Thursday 23 September 2021