Benneydale School - becoming the heart of its community
For the 29 students of Benneydale School, opportunity can sometimes feel a long way away.
In this small King Country community, organised sport and recreation often means travelling to Te Kūiti or further afield for Benneydale School. Distance, transport costs and the realities of rural life can put experiences many children elsewhere take for granted beyond reach. The school’s small roll also makes traditional team sports difficult.
But those challenges are increasingly being met with creativity, partnership and a determination to give local tamariki the chance to thrive.
Through Sport New Zealand’s Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa funding (administered in thee Waikato region by Sport Waikato) and support from Sport Waikato, the school has introduced skateboarding, pickleball and He Ara Whakamua (a kaupapa hauora designed to build confidence, connection, wellbeing and belonging).
For Principal Steve Bodger, that matters deeply.
“It means we can dream and have a bit of hope. That we can give these kids experiences that town kids get.”
Perhaps nowhere is that impact clearer than skateboarding.
With support from local organisation Thrive, professional coaches transformed the local park into a temporary skate park. Tū Manawa funding also meant every child could receive a skateboard, allowing the experience to continue long after the coaching finished. Students began practising together before and after school, at break times and their new skateboards became their transport to get around Benneydale.
Bodger remembers something even more important than the new skills: “It was amazing. The unity. It was everyone just there together. They were helping each other, holding hands, doing it together.”
Pickleball has created connections in a different way. Easy to learn and suitable for different ages and abilities, it gave the small school something it could call its own. Benneydale hosted a rural schools pickleball festival, turning the usual experience on its head: instead of its students always having to travel to other schools, schools came to them.
“It was cool for our kids to have other schools come to their school,” Bodger says.
Meanwhile, He Ara Whakamua is showing that movement can reach far beyond physical fitness. Combining martial arts with journalling, Te Ao Maaori concepts, emotional resilience and holistic wellbeing, the programme is helping students understand their emotions, build confidence and develop strategies to self-regulate. Students who once struggled to participate are now volunteering and encouraging others.
Together, these programmes tell a bigger story about what is possible when opportunities are built around a community rather than expecting a community to travel to them.
That is particularly significant in Benneydale because the school is more than a school. Its grounds are the township’s playground and recreation hub, used by children and whaanau beyond school hours.
Now the vision is growing. There are aspirations for a community pump track, more rural-school events, bikes and scooters, improved outdoor facilities and new activities suited to small numbers. The ambition is for Benneydale School to become the active heart of its community - somewhere people gather, connect, play and belong.
As Bodger puts it: “There’s no other playground in this town. There’s no other courts in this town. This is it. This is the town.”
