Inspiring Taranaki’s sporting leaders
Nearly 300 students from 16 schools all over Taranaki attended the Taranaki Youth Forum days held by Sport Taranaki and the Secondary Schools Sports Association last Tuesday and Wednesday.
The forum kicked off with guest speakers Cam Calkoen and Blake Skjellerup captivating and inspiring the students.
The students worked closely in teams across different schools and different age groups to come up with some really great intra-school projects.
The projects were aimed at engaging everyone, sporty or non-sporty and being completely inclusive. All of the ideas were developed by the students so that they, as leaders, could take back and implement them at their schools.
The second day was more practical with many of the soft leadership skills being learned and developed through many different sporting contexts.
The purpose of the forum was to bring students, teachers and schools together from within the region for a learning and leadership development opportunity.
The organisers, Hannah Kelly from Sport Taranaki and Tara Potter from TSSSA identified the importance of leadership skills in growing great young people and provided the forum in response to the desire of Taranaki schools to develop these skills in their students.
‘‘The kids were happy and inspired. Hearing all the great ideas that students had and seeing them work together and bonding was a real highlight. They are a great bunch of kids which makes us excited for the future,’’ Kelly said.
Over the two days Kelly believed the kids were inspired to dream big and ‘‘that they can be what they want to be if they believe in themselves’’.
Through sport young people learn so many valuable lessons, including leadership, team work, fair play, honesty, respect for others and themselves and following rules, she said. It also provides a way for young people to learn how to deal with competition and how to cope with both winning and losing.
These learning aspects highlight the impact of physical education and sport on a child’s social and moral development in addition to physical skills and abilities. All of which can be carried into situations in their adult life, Kelly said.
Sport Taranaki and TSSSA are excited about the future of the Taranaki Youth Forum and hope to be able to run it again next year.
‘‘It was a great starting point but it would be great to involve more students in the future,’’ Kelly said. For more info contact Kelly on (06) 759 0930 ext:732