Over the past year, in partnership with Sport Waitakere, AFL New Zealand has successfully delivered a pathway project into Waitakere Secondary Schools to over 3000 students.
AFL New Zealand has diversified the programmes available to Secondary Schools to ensure flexibility that suits the outcomes of your school and provides opportunities for students and staff to participate in all facets of AFL.
The exciting range of programmes ensures that our professional staff can work with Secondary Schools to deliver a fun and rewarding experience for girls, boys and teachers.
Schools involved in the project:
Waitakere College
Liston College
Greenbay High School
Kelston Boys High School
Kelston Girls College
Henderson High School
St Dominic’s Catholic College
Massey High School
Rutherford College
Project achievements:
- Introduction to AFL sessions to 3140 West Auckland student within 9 schools in the region.
- 65 students within Waitakere participate in the AFLNZ Secondary Schools Coach the Coaches programme. After their in-school learning sessions, Year 12 Greenbay High School and Year 13 Kelston Boys High School coaches delivered the AFL KiwiKick programme to students from Blockhouse Bay Intermediate and Kelston Primary respectively. Both these programmes were focused on strengthening their community links with feeder schools from around the area whilst delivering the AFL Kiwikick programme at the same time earning credits.
- Henderson High school had 20 senior students participate in the AFL Leadership programme going on to run an AFL House Rules competition day for 120 of their year 9 and 10 students.
- 30 senior students from Waitakere College were given a project through Term 3 that focused on increasing participation within the school and ongoing participation outside of school. With the assistance of AFLNZ, the year 12 and 13 students delivered AFL House rules competition that saw games of AFL played every lunchtime during the week for the term. Prior to this, AFL New Zealand delivered Introduction to AFL to all year 9 and 10 PE classes. Every student was provided the opportunity to play in the AFLNZ Youth Competition with 7 students registering to play and potentially being selected for the AFLNZ Academy and National representation in April next year.
- 18 students have completed a Gateway placement with AFLNZ where students are placed with AFLNZ staff for 6 weeks delivering the AFLNZ Kiwikick programme in local Waitakere schools. Two students involved in the Gateway programme have gone on to casual employment with the organisation delivering AFLNZ programmes Auckland wide.
For the duration of the project there have been 240 participants involved in preparation and playing in the Hawks Cup Secondary School competition. This included teams from:
Waitakere College:
- Junior Girls 2014 Greater Auckland Champions
- Junior Boys 2014 Waitakere Champions
Greenbay High School:
- Senior Boys 2015 Waitakere Champions
- Junior Girls 2015 Greater Auckland Champions
Rutherford College:
- Junior Boys 2015 Waitakere Champions
In the past, the pathway for these students has been from the delivery in Secondary Schools and Secondary School competitions and then onto selection for national representation. This year has seen 7 students from Waitakere schools go on to represent New Zealand in age group NZ Hawks (boys) and Kahu (girls) teams.
Through the assistance of these projects, AFL New Zealand has increased the exposure of the sport to so many more potential players and has been able to launch the AFLNZ Youth Competition for both Boys and Girls aged 12 to 17.
From the project, all students are provided the opportunity to play a new summer sport and 18 have taken up the opportunity to play in the Youth competition and potential selection into the AFLNZ Academy and National representation in April next year.
