The PALs (Physical Activity Leaders) Leadership Programme, led by Sport Waikato in partnership with Waikato Institute for Leisure and Sport Studies (WILSS), is helping schools create more active, inclusive and positive lunchtime environments - while giving senior students meaningful leadership experiences that boost their confidence and capability.

PALs is a school based programme helping to grow students’ leadership skills in order to equip them with the tools to run physical activity sessions and games during lunchtimes at school.

The Sport Waikato 2024 Voice of Tamariki (VoT) Survey for Cambridge & Te Awamutu tells us that 45% of the 3226 students surveyed are not meeting the physical activity guidelines of 7 or more hours of physical activity per week. 10% of those students are doing no active movement at school. 

"Students involved in sport outside school set up and play games well… but others who aren’t confident don’t participate. That’s the real need - creating opportunities for them." - Sport Waikato Primary Learning Partner, Anton Barr

With curriculum demands on teachers and reduced time for supervision, teachers can no longer run regular games themselves. Feedback from young people reinforces this: students want to be active at break times, but often lack the confidence or ideas to start games on their own.

With teachers having limited time, the ‘sporty’ kids often ended up running lunch time sports for themselves, however this meant the non-sporty kids often miss out on activity. These self organised activities often lead to behaviour issues due to arguments, rule disputes and exclusion of less confident kids. 

"And now that they've had a go at all the activities, they're really confident to try new things. They pick one [activity] or they come up with an additional one and then they look at what it needs, have a little bit of planning time in our house captain meeting and then they make a decision about when they're going to do it, who's it going to be for, how they're going to advertise it, and what equipment they’re going to need." Teacher - Cambridge Primary School

The PALs model offers a simple, sustainable solution: student-led, inclusive and fun lunchtime activities. Sport Waikato’s Professional Learning Partners, Anton Barr and Sarah Ryan partnered with School Programme Manager Paula Dewar from WILSS to provide PALS workshops designed to give senior primary school students the tools they need to design, plan, organise and deliver lunchtime activities for their schools.

These full-day workshops bring together groups of schools for a hands-on, active, high-energy day where students learn by doing, not listening. Paula and Anton co-designed and WILSS delivers the programme, which:

• immerses students in a wide variety of games
• builds leadership skills through participation
• equips them to run activities back at school immediately
• involves teachers directly in the process
• provides resources and planning tools for sustainability

Teachers attend alongside their students, which strengthens consistency in development and delivery of their organised lunchtime games programme once they return to school.

This shift away from theory-heavy leadership sessions to practical learning has been a deliberate evolution.

"I think it's just really cool to see everyone smiling and having a good time and it really feels like I've accomplished something every week." Evie - PALs Leader

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