Case Study: EOTC on the sports field – participating positively
What we focused learning on and why:
Holy Family, a decile 1 Catholic school in Porirua with around 200 pupils, encourages students to participate in sport.
Many of the approximately 30 staff (including support staff and part-time staff) are engaged in coaching, managing and
supporting school sports teams that are mostly involved in Saturday competition.
Mrs Fisiena Lupo-Samoa explained that:
“We believe that important learning occurs when students participate in team sports, so our staff choose to get involved in
coaching and managing sports teams.
Students learn how to be a team player and how to participate and contribute to a team effort. They learn to support their
teammates. While they may strive for individual excellence, they need to learn how to respect themselves when they don’t
play to the standards they have set for themselves.
Students need to learn the value of supporting team members who make a mistake rather than criticising them.
These are all key personal values and skills that are recognised in the intent of the curriculum as building confident, connected
and actively involved learners and resilient people able to handle success and disappointment.”
What we planned (focusing inquiry):
The school focuses on participating in sport rather than developing competition and competitive individuals and teams. This fits
within the school’s value system. Students and their families who are high-level performers can be advised to join clubs in the
area and seek that route to representative honours or high level competition.
An explanation of how junior soccer operates in our school demonstrates how we put our philosophy about participation in
sport into practice.
The school pays an outside provider to provide soccer coaching for our students. The coaching is held in school time and is built
into the school’s Physical Education motor skills development programme across all year levels.
We have five soccer teams that participate in Saturday competition held indoors at our local recreation centre. Teams are
mixed, with around 12 team members. Our teams usually have at least four girls playing in each team. Our teams have Māori,
Pacific Island and Pakehā students in them, reflecting our school population.
We discuss with parents how great it is for students to have family on the sideline cheering them on, but we indicate that we
are building team spirit and children will be rostered on and off and, at this age level, all performance is positive. We stress that
the aim after a season of playing sport is to have every student feeling positive about playing the game and pleased with how
they have performed and participated in the team. We want them keen to play soccer or another team sport again.
Safety considerations:
Our school has developed policies about how staff manage Saturday sport.
Teachers are required to get parents to sign forms that outline the schools’ and the parents’ commitment to Saturday sport.
The parents complete a registration form and a personal detail form. This requires parents to:
 Give details of any medical condition or health issues the student has.
 Provide contact details of how the parent or family member with responsibility for the student can be contacted
every Saturday morning in case of an emergency.
Two teachers accompany each team and we are responsible for transporting the majority of the team. We require our parents
to give an undertaking that each week they will give clear instructions about where their child is to be collected from and
returned to. We will not leave a child without sighting adult supervision so we stress that an adult must be home to receive the
child after the game.
We discuss our expectations with the parents, either in person or by phone, and include discussions about whether the family is
happy to have their child transported by other families.
Our school has a policy that if parents are going to transport school students, the teacher in charge must look and see that the
vehicle has working seat belts, a current warrant of fitness and that the driver has a current licence. Our parents know that
these checks are for the safety of their children so they are supportive of them.
Having two teachers with two vehicles at every game ensures we could deal with any injury to a player and supervise remaining
players without having to rely on parent support.
Check the requirements of your own school policies when planning such learning experiences. See the EOTC Guidelines, 2009
for further information.
What we did (teaching inquiry):
The teams play each weekend. We win some, we lose some and we learn from both experiences.
Each week, after the game, we talk about the game with the students and check that everyone is feeling positive. We check
that no one has an injury.
We thank the parents and families who came to watch the game and encourage them to come back next week.
We, the team, teachers and some family, do it all again the next Saturday, throughout the competition season.
Our Holy Family students are in yellow.
What happened (learning inquiry):
In 2010 our soccer coach was Cole Peverley who played for the Phoenix and was in the New Zealand World Cup team. Our
students had a role model they knew who was playing for his country and we followed New Zealand’s World Cup campaign
enthusiastically.
The Capital Football’s coaching initiative has certainly raised student interest in the game. Soccer is not a sport traditionally
played by Pacific Island and Māori students, but at our school interest in soccer is high. The next Pacific Island All White might
just come from Porirua!
Our preparation work with parents works well as the parents and extended family that come to the games are encouraging of
their children and other players in the team.
While our school focus is on participation and fair play, our students are naturally athletic and they learnt their soccer skills well.
In 2010 all our teams made the semi-finals of their competitions and were proud of how they represented our school.