Sir Murray Halberg, the Founder of the Halberg Trust.
The Trust was established in 1963.
"Every New Zealander no matter what their ability has the right to participate in the sport or active recreation pursuit of their choice - there are no exceptions!"
Ten schools signed up for Halbergs Sports Ability in Schools Project
Ten schools within the greater Auckland region have formally committed to a 12 month Sport Ability project offered by the Halberg Trusts, Sport Opportunity Programme.
Sports Ability is a program targeting people with a disability. The Sports Ability in Schools 2009 project has been possible with the support of ASB Community Trust who have enabled Sports Ability equipment kits to be placed in participating schools - guardians of the kit. The project manager, Jo O’Callaghan says “Having the support of ASB Community Trust has enabled schools to have on-site access to Sports Ability equipment, Rosehill School’s students were utilising equipment the day immediately after teachers and teacher aides received the equipment and training, this highlights the enthusiasm of the schools.”
Sports Ability has an inclusive games programme with two main aims of providing teachers, sport and community leaders with more ways of including people with a disability in physical activity and sport, particularly those who have higher support needs and to create a medium for the integration of people with and without a disability in inclusive games.
Sports Ability Kits consist of three elements:
1. equipment for five inclusive games (three of which are current Paralympic sports).
2. resource material consisting of easy-to-use activity cards and instructional DVD.
3. training to facilitate the delivery of the programme into sport and community organizations and schools.
The Sports Ability in Schools project also incorporates workshops to train teachers and teacher aides on the five sports as well as up skilling knowledge around adapting regular physical activity and sports to support the inclusion of their disabled students. Within the 12-month project period each participating school receives up to 8 hours in-school support per term from the advisers of Halberg Trusts Sport Opportunity programme. There will be an inaugural Sports Ability Interschool event run in each region for the students to represent their school and compete against rival schools.
The goal of this project is for guardian schools to support the regular use of Sports Ability sports within their school, an annual competition and to develop a system that encourages local community to borrow Sports Ability equipment and develop more opportunities thereby supporting growth of Sports Ability sports in the whole community.
Schools taking part in this project are listed below and there are more schools interested in committing to the project.
Counties Manukau region - Tuakau School & Rosehill School
Auckland region - Mt Roskill Intermediate, Mt Richmond Special School & Sommerville Special School
Waitakere Region - Arohanui Special School, Peninsula Primary School & Oaklynn Special School
North Shore & Rodney Regions - Mahurangi College, Manuka Primary & Wairau Valley Special School
A special thanks go to our project supporters:
- Gull
-ASB Community Trust
"Every New Zealander no matter what their ability has the right to participate in the sport or active recreation pursuit of their choice - there are no exceptions!"
