Case Study: Sport Bay of Plenty's GO4it Programme
Background
GO4it is a comprehensive fundamental skills programme that focuses on key skill sets that develop skills required to participate in sport and recreation for life. GO4it consists of nine skill sets, six that form the core skills, and three additional components that complement these. This programme has a long term focus that delivers age-appropriate activities throughout the whole school.
This programme was triggered by the Minister of Sport announcing the establishment of the KiwiSport Fund in August 2009. Sport Bay of Plenty’s response was to go to its community to identify needs and priorities for young people’s sport and recreation.
The engagement process with community organisations identified seven priorities: fundamental skills development, collaboration, quality competitions and events, reducing inequalities, quality people, key messages and professional development. The community was then asked to rank those. Fundamental skill development was ranked as the number one priority by 47% of respondents, and 85% ranked it in their top three.
A draft plan was developed and consulted on. A final plan was presented to SPARC at the end of 2009.
Fundamental skill development, in this context, is providing a learning environment where young people develop fundamental movement and basic sport skills so they have the right building blocks to play sport for life. Skills development programmes should be targeted at upskilling parents, teachers and coaches, and be cost effective.
Sport Bay of Plenty has summarised this as “ensuring children develop fundamental skills enabling them to develop a lifelong love of sport and recreation.”
Engagement Strategy
Sport Bay of Plenty acknowledged at an early stage the extent of community groups across the region interested in or involved with sport and recreation for primary-school-aged children. It was recognised that there were communities of place and communities of interest that needed to be aligned.
“What we were really setting out to address with GO4it was a social issue. Kids weren’t playing sports,” Sport Bay of Plenty’s Fundamentals Team Leader Nick Chambers says.
“Our world has changed a lot over the past few decades and parents are relying increasingly on schools to provide the social play environment that kids used to get around home outside of school.”
An engagement strategy was developed to identify the issues that were contributing to lack of participation in sports.
“Community engagement from the beginning is key to having a programme that is widely understood and accepted,” Nick Chambers says.
Sport Bay of Plenty’s engagement programme involved two key stages. The first sought to identify issues and the second prioritised those issues.
“A need for fundamental skills training was a clear winner. As well as providing a clear focus for our efforts, the engagement process also gave us a mandate to do what needed to be done. It also aligned the dozens of agencies and organisations that needed to be involved to make this work.
“Sport Bay of Plenty had a programme that preceded GO4it that focused on growing, training and retaining coaches. But what we learned from community feedback is that we had to broaden the focus to be less about codes and focus instead on the kids’ needs at certain ages.
“Our role at Sport Bay of Plenty has been to intensely deliver activities in the early stages of involvement with schools, then ease back as teachers and coaches gain confidence delivering the programme.
“Early on we had looked at where best this programme could be delivered. We decided that in schools was best and recognised that this meant working closely with teachers to develop their skills.
“We also made use of advisory groups. These were largely comprised of people who knew what was needed for GO4it and less focused on individual sports.
“Skills are grouped around kids’ ages. Kids start with the easier skills when they’re younger and we add complexity as they get older. Year 0-2 kids start with the Leg it and Move it modules. Year 3-6 kids grow into the Kick it, Pass it and Hit it modules. A Lead it module is introduced for year 4-8. Needs based modules – Swim it, Bike it and Tokatu are added as required for year 5-6 kids.
“These modules link to national programmes developed by other organisations. For example the Leg it module applies Athletics New Zealand’s GET SET GO programme, and Move it uses GymsportsNZ’s ‘moveMprove’ programme. Kick it uses a collaborative regional model developed by Waikato Bay of Plenty Football and Upper Central Rugby League. Pass it is led by a relationship between Netball BOP and Upper Central Rugby League. Hit it is guided by Bay of Plenty Badminton and Tennis Waikato Bays.
“Building these partnering relationships with sports codes required some holistic thinking on our part. Some codes have limited coaching depth and skills training resources available, particularly at a regional or local level. That’s why some of the larger codes have been awarded service contracts. We have to align what we can deliver with a sport’s capabilities,” Nick Chambers says.
Outcomes
The GO4it programme has changed the way schools, sporting codes and related organisations across the Bay of Plenty region focus and deliver to children.
In 2011, the pilot year of GO4it operated, nine components were delivered to every kid in the 22 schools that participated.
In 2012, the number of schools involved increased to 32, with five compulsory components and three optional components. The reduction in the core components freed up budget to help move kids from outlying areas into centres with swimming pools and other facilities.
In 2013 the same approach as 2012 was followed but with Tokatu removed as a core component. It was agreed that this wasn’t best positioned at primary school level. 34 schools were involved and an additional funding injection received from the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust.
Lessons learnt
“Fundamental skills development is like a tunnel. The objective is to have kids emerge from the tunnel with all the skills they need to take into whatever sport or recreational endeavour they may choose.
“It’s easy for schools to be overwhelmed by what’s available without guidelines and principles.
“Decreasing duplication across codes is important,” he says.
Changes have been made to the GO4it programme to support and ensure that the four key objectives can be achieved:
Contact for further information
Nick Chambers, Fundamentals Team Leader, Sport Bay of Plenty.
Email: nickc@sportbop.co.nz
Phone: 021 244 8402
GO4it is a comprehensive fundamental skills programme that focuses on key skill sets that develop skills required to participate in sport and recreation for life. GO4it consists of nine skill sets, six that form the core skills, and three additional components that complement these. This programme has a long term focus that delivers age-appropriate activities throughout the whole school.
This programme was triggered by the Minister of Sport announcing the establishment of the KiwiSport Fund in August 2009. Sport Bay of Plenty’s response was to go to its community to identify needs and priorities for young people’s sport and recreation.
The engagement process with community organisations identified seven priorities: fundamental skills development, collaboration, quality competitions and events, reducing inequalities, quality people, key messages and professional development. The community was then asked to rank those. Fundamental skill development was ranked as the number one priority by 47% of respondents, and 85% ranked it in their top three.
A draft plan was developed and consulted on. A final plan was presented to SPARC at the end of 2009.
Fundamental skill development, in this context, is providing a learning environment where young people develop fundamental movement and basic sport skills so they have the right building blocks to play sport for life. Skills development programmes should be targeted at upskilling parents, teachers and coaches, and be cost effective.
Sport Bay of Plenty has summarised this as “ensuring children develop fundamental skills enabling them to develop a lifelong love of sport and recreation.”
Engagement Strategy
Sport Bay of Plenty acknowledged at an early stage the extent of community groups across the region interested in or involved with sport and recreation for primary-school-aged children. It was recognised that there were communities of place and communities of interest that needed to be aligned.
“What we were really setting out to address with GO4it was a social issue. Kids weren’t playing sports,” Sport Bay of Plenty’s Fundamentals Team Leader Nick Chambers says.
“Our world has changed a lot over the past few decades and parents are relying increasingly on schools to provide the social play environment that kids used to get around home outside of school.”
An engagement strategy was developed to identify the issues that were contributing to lack of participation in sports.
“Community engagement from the beginning is key to having a programme that is widely understood and accepted,” Nick Chambers says.
Sport Bay of Plenty’s engagement programme involved two key stages. The first sought to identify issues and the second prioritised those issues.
“A need for fundamental skills training was a clear winner. As well as providing a clear focus for our efforts, the engagement process also gave us a mandate to do what needed to be done. It also aligned the dozens of agencies and organisations that needed to be involved to make this work.
“Sport Bay of Plenty had a programme that preceded GO4it that focused on growing, training and retaining coaches. But what we learned from community feedback is that we had to broaden the focus to be less about codes and focus instead on the kids’ needs at certain ages.
“Our role at Sport Bay of Plenty has been to intensely deliver activities in the early stages of involvement with schools, then ease back as teachers and coaches gain confidence delivering the programme.
“Early on we had looked at where best this programme could be delivered. We decided that in schools was best and recognised that this meant working closely with teachers to develop their skills.
“We also made use of advisory groups. These were largely comprised of people who knew what was needed for GO4it and less focused on individual sports.
“Skills are grouped around kids’ ages. Kids start with the easier skills when they’re younger and we add complexity as they get older. Year 0-2 kids start with the Leg it and Move it modules. Year 3-6 kids grow into the Kick it, Pass it and Hit it modules. A Lead it module is introduced for year 4-8. Needs based modules – Swim it, Bike it and Tokatu are added as required for year 5-6 kids.
“These modules link to national programmes developed by other organisations. For example the Leg it module applies Athletics New Zealand’s GET SET GO programme, and Move it uses GymsportsNZ’s ‘moveMprove’ programme. Kick it uses a collaborative regional model developed by Waikato Bay of Plenty Football and Upper Central Rugby League. Pass it is led by a relationship between Netball BOP and Upper Central Rugby League. Hit it is guided by Bay of Plenty Badminton and Tennis Waikato Bays.
“Building these partnering relationships with sports codes required some holistic thinking on our part. Some codes have limited coaching depth and skills training resources available, particularly at a regional or local level. That’s why some of the larger codes have been awarded service contracts. We have to align what we can deliver with a sport’s capabilities,” Nick Chambers says.
Outcomes
The GO4it programme has changed the way schools, sporting codes and related organisations across the Bay of Plenty region focus and deliver to children.
In 2011, the pilot year of GO4it operated, nine components were delivered to every kid in the 22 schools that participated.
In 2012, the number of schools involved increased to 32, with five compulsory components and three optional components. The reduction in the core components freed up budget to help move kids from outlying areas into centres with swimming pools and other facilities.
In 2013 the same approach as 2012 was followed but with Tokatu removed as a core component. It was agreed that this wasn’t best positioned at primary school level. 34 schools were involved and an additional funding injection received from the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust.
Lessons learnt
“Fundamental skills development is like a tunnel. The objective is to have kids emerge from the tunnel with all the skills they need to take into whatever sport or recreational endeavour they may choose.
“It’s easy for schools to be overwhelmed by what’s available without guidelines and principles.
“Decreasing duplication across codes is important,” he says.
Changes have been made to the GO4it programme to support and ensure that the four key objectives can be achieved:
- To support children in developing skills that will enable them to participate effectively in organised sport
- To encourage collaboration between primary schools and provide a quality product that is appropriate and relevant to the school setting.
- Ensure that there are opportunities for continuous learning available for teachers, coaches, parents and volunteers.
- Encourage collaborative relationships between and amongst sports, to ensure less duplication in the delivery of sport in schools.
Contact for further information
Nick Chambers, Fundamentals Team Leader, Sport Bay of Plenty.
Email: nickc@sportbop.co.nz
Phone: 021 244 8402
