Ultimate in Schools
Primary School Ultimate in Wellington (2008)
VUWFDC provided coaches to today's school sports day the Wgtn Stadium. WDS funded their time through VUWFDC.
20 primary schools attended, of the 260+ in Wgtn region. that's all they can fit in, and places are eagerly sought every year. The kids rotated every 45minutes, doing 5 sports each, of the 18 sports attending. It was really windy, so we focussed on throwing and catching skills, and used a couple of games we invented to provide some incentive and competition between teams while reinforcing the throwing, catching, teamwork, and similar aspects. girls seem to be better organised. netball players get it real quick. We had close to 30 kids every group, so combined with the wind, there was little point trying to squeeze in games of proper ultimate. We noticed that some of the other sports were highly organised, with both colourful and fun equipment, and fun ways to learn some of the skills for those sports. easy-to-understand and complete, interactive, appropriate equipment, and participatory, all seemed to be good approaches. We used our 175g discs; WDS has ordered 25 140g "J-Star" discraft discs which are intended for primary age kids and should be better. I forgot to take our new banner (which has impressed everyone so far). One school asked if we could do a school visit. they'll make contact via the website.
The stadium is only provided one day a year, thus only 20 regional schools can participate. I discussed with the organiser from Sport Wgtn, who had left them but came back to organise this by contract, whether it couldn't be repeated for more kids by moving around the region over several days. but that all takes time to organise and some funding. Schools pay nothing but organise their own transport etc; the field was free (and we agreed that other councils would probably provide fields for free); sports provided their own equipment; Sport Wgtn had staff, lunches for coaches, etc.
Several sports have programs they take into schools. there is no doubt these are recruitment programs. Sport Wgtn (and regional sports agencies) provide training on how to fit in with school curriculums and requirements. the schools really like having programs available to them. PE is now a compulsory activity that must be completed and reported on in every school. Ultimate would need to be organised to meet the very high demand for coaching from primary and secondary schools. funding, job descriptions, training, targets, and recognition that the benefits to us are more players in future years. which if we run our leagues (and some other activities) at profit, eventually becomes self-funding (if the program and goals are completed and continued).
OK I'm done.
Martin Wilson
Capital Productions
events management
Ultimate in Secondary Schools
The Canterbury Flyers are a Christchurch based Ultimate Frisbee club who are spearheading an initiative to develop the sport of Ultimate in Secondary Schools across the region. Details of our proposal delivered via the Director of School Sport Canterbury in November 2004 are listed below.
Loan Library: We now have a limited collection of Ultimate DVDs and videos for schools to borrow (typically ONE title for TWO weeks at a time). The loan is FREE and we will deliver it to you for FREE - all you have to cover is the cost of return to the Library! Details of titles and the operation of the loan system will soon be added to the above website, so keep it bookmarked!
Local Club Ultimate: Several participants at the recent Coach Education Sessions were keen to learn more and play in the local league. If you want to find out more about this, send me an email or else visit the website for times and locations.
Once again, thank you for your enthusiasm. With your help we hope to make
Ultimate more accessible to students across the region.
Dave "Sammy" Neilson
Canterbury Flyers Frisbee Club - (schools Initiative 2005)
Canterbury School Ultimate Initative (2005)
Hi all
Thought I ought to share our exciting news on progress with the introduction of Ultimate to local high schools.
On Friday 26 November the Director of “School Sport Canterbury” read the attached proposal (download below) to about 25 Heads of Sport from across the region. In addition, they watched a 15 minute video on Ultimate (the old UPA Instructional Tape) and were given a two page outline of the sport and our initiative here in Canterbury, plus the colour leaflet: Playing Ultimate Frisbee.
The Ashburton College Sports Coordinator, Deborah Kell, handed out the leaflets etc, and encouraged those interested to add their names to the Sign Up Sheet ... NINETEEN SCHOOLS have signed up! Those present were keen on the idea of a local School Ultimate Tournament, preferably in either the last two weeks of Term 1 or the first two weeks of Term 2.
Meanwhile (as mentioned in the proposal) Ashburton College (where I work) will soon host an Introduction to Ultimate for the Aoraki Heads of Sport to help encourage schools in our next-door region, just south of Canterbury. In addition, a group of 16 or so youngsters (14/15 yr
old) are regularly attending the Tuesday night Junior Ultimate sessions in Christchurch, which are being coached by Grant Mitchell, Pete Crowther, Chris “Goose” Barker and assorted helpers.
We need to capitalise on the interest shown to date and to press ahead with the planned School Ultimate Pack. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please drop me a line.
Cheers
Download Proposal.pdf (162k)