Rural wellbeing was the focus of a recent event at Hororata Primary School, with a group of Lincoln University Future Leader scholars running a series of activities that aimed to bring children and their families together.
The school hosted several learning sessions relating to topics such as technology, healthy eating and being sun smart, which took place alongside the scholars’ more hands-on activities.
Future Leader scholar Paige Harris said the pupils’ families were invited to attend the event.
“The idea was to begin creating habits that would make each family unit stronger and encourage them to appreciate the simple things in life,” she said.
“We wanted to let rural families know they shouldn’t feel guilty about taking time off, despite the busy period at the moment with calving and lambing.
“In fact, it’s important to take time off in order to be able to work to a high standard throughout the whole season.”
The scholars’ message about rural wellbeing also involved ease of access to resources if needed, with Farmstrong and the Mental Health Foundation providing supplies for some of the activities.
Paige said the event was designed to align with five key strategies for promoting physiological wellbeing: ‘be active’, ‘take notice’, ‘keep learning’, ‘give’, and ‘connect’.
Pupils made cards to give to people they loved (which corresponded to the strategies of ‘connect’ and ‘take notice’), participated in a gumboot throw (‘be active’), took a quiz (‘keep learning’), and painted a picture representing their idea of what ‘giving’ looked like.
They also wrote in chalk on a wall to produce a list of the things they most appreciate in life.
“The ‘I Appreciate’ wall was a huge hit with the kids. Some examples of what they wrote on it were friends, family, pets, farming, hunting, rugby, learning, and duck shooting,” Paige said. “One kid even mentioned their John Deere tractor, which made us laugh.
“To finish the day, we practised distributed leadership, which is a shared leadership practice and a focus for the third years on the Future Leader programme.
“We asked the physical activity leaders at the school to create an obstacle course for a house competition and got the parents involved. They created their own house to compete against the kids.”
The scholars also ran several competitions in the lead-up to the event “to show families that it only takes a couple of hours to do a fun activity at home”.
“There was a baking competition for dads, a sculpture competition for mums and a family photo shoot, which they worked on in the lead-up to the event.”
The winners received a wide range of donated prizes at the end of the day.
“The response was amazing for each of the categories,” Paige said. “The entries were very creative and eye-catching.”
The Future Leaders were pleased to realise their goal of focusing on “community, connections and coming together”.
“We’re really proud of what we achieved. Hororata Primary School principal Marty Gameson, Future Leader Scholarship Coordinator Alana Dawson and my capability coach, Jayne Smith, played a large part in the success of the day, due to the knowledge and support they offered.”
The Future Leader Scholarship Programme involves teaching leadership skills to exceptional Lincoln students. The scholars take part in clubs, committees and group projects throughout each university year.