Sport Academy
The philosophy behind the Year 7 and 8 Junior Academy is based around fundamental skills of coordination, balance, spatial awareness etc. which will benefit all athletes regardless of the sport/s in which they participate. We have purposely resisted the temptation to have students in the Junior Academy specialising in one particular sport. Not all members of the Junior Academy participate in ball sports, in the past we have had sailors, equestrians and dancers. Progressions are planned and provided to further challenge students once they have gained consistency in their performance of the targeted skill. Students are introduced to activities they would have had little experience, in an attempt to develop their resiliency skills, which they will need to overcome obstacles they inevitably face if/when they progress to become high performance athletes. Part of our motivation is to have our Taieri College students compete on par with all local secondary schools and colleges.
Next Steps
Topics such as nutrition, specialised fitness programmes, etc. are introduced in the next two tiers of the academy. i.e. the Year 9 Sports Science option has four main topics; Physical (fitness and fitness testing, nutrition injuries), Psychology (goal setting, self-talk, imagery), Technical (skill analysis, peer appraisal), Tactical (game sense and decision making). The Year 9 Sports Science class is an optional subject which makes up part of the curriculum (two hours practical and one hour classroom based per week).
Time
We have purposely not included any classroom or lecture based sessions for the Year 7 and 8 students. Sessions are held once a fortnight on a Wednesday from 7.45am to 8.45am in the gymnasium.
Contacts
Karen Dunlea - Sports Academy Manager kdunlea@taieri.school.nz or
Blake Prince - Director of Sport bprince@taieri.school.nz