Ashburton College students are winding up term 3 in a blaze of colour as they celebrate the end of a popular physical activity programme.
A colour run was held at Argyle Park on Monday, where students from years 9 and 10, and from Kohanga and Te Whare Manaaki, went around a course of 12 activity stations while teachers and support staff showered them with coloured chalk paint.
Activities included threelegged races, egg and spoon races, hopscotch, crawling under a giant net, and noncolour splash activities such as giant Connect Four, tug of war, soccer and volleyball.
It followed a similar event for students in years 11, 12 and 13 last week.
It was all in the name of increasing physical activity and wellbeing, and fostering strong relationships between students and staff.
They are the goals of the nationwide school initiative, Active As.
Teacher Cheyenne Parris, who was responsible for the establishment of the programme at the college, said the colour runs were decided by the programme’s student leadership group as a fun way to celebrate the house system and place students in a different outdoor setting.
Part of the fun was having different activities so students could challenge their friends, Parris said.
‘‘We have been so lucky with the good weather over these two days as the students identified part of the reason for wanting to do the colour runs is that they want to spend more time in fun outdoor spaces, trying something new with their friends,’’ Parris said.
‘‘As part of Active As, we take data from surveys around school that tell us how students want to be physically active and when, as well as how they feel at school,’’ she said.
‘‘An area for improvement that students identified was the opportunity to get out and about with their ako class and teacher, as well as wanting more opportunities for fun movement and games that are accessible to everyone.’’
