Our school is aiming to introduce a weights room / gymnasium for our students and we are applying for funding assistance to aid with the purchase of equipment for this facility. The benefits of this project are many – with the main ones being an increase in opportunities for our students to get active and involved in a different form of physical activity along with providing a facility to aid our premier sports teams and elite student athletes as they compete on national and international stages. This is an important project for our school community especially given how many of our young people struggle to make healthy active choices.

The more often our students are able to compete at the highest level in both local and national competitions, the more pride they have in themselves and our community. There is a misplaced stereo type that South Auckland students/schools are not able to compete with higher decile schools and this is simply not true. The more students we can encourage to stay within our local community rather than leaving local intermediate schools and moving to secondary schools outside of our community due to perceived better facilities the better it will be for our local community.
Secondly the more students we can get involved in exercise the healthier our local community will be. We already educate our students around correct nutrition and this facility will go side by side with our nutrition programme.

We are one of the few secondary schools that don’t currently have a weight training facility /gym at the school. Again there are two main reasons for wanting the introduction of this facility. Firstly it creates another opportunity for students to get involved in sport, a number of our students are involved with the Papatoetoe Olympic weight lifting club so it is clearly an avenue we can explore for our students. Secondly it relates to our desire to create a high performance sporting environment within our community. Both our 1st XV and Premier Netball teams finished in the top 8 of their National competitions in 2015, for us to ensure our elite student athletes continue to develop and perform on a national stage we need to ensure they are able to be as well prepared as the schools they compete against. By creating this environment of excellence and high performance it also means our students will not be tempted by offers to continue their education at alternative establishments around the Auckland area.

Website

http://www.aorere.ac.nz/