Free clean sport education programme for New Zealand Schools
Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) brings award-winning clean sport education into New Zealand schools with today’s launch of the Good Clean Sport School Toolkit.
Available to all intermediate and secondary schools, it provides five comprehensive lesson plans addressing important issues such as sporting values and integrity; health and nutrition; and the dangers of supplements and performance enhancing drugs. The Toolkit empowers educators to start conversations early with rangatahi, inspiring positive self-management and healthy decision-making.
Chief Executive Nick Paterson said, “We want to work with schools to support their young athletes, and the Good Clean Sport School Toolkit enables us to reach these future stars and their coaches. This will prepare them to make positive decisions, uphold the integrity of their sports and become champions who continue the tradition of clean sport in New Zealand.”
The Toolkit has gained support from Mike Summerell, CEO of School Sports New Zealand: “It’s a fantastic resource and the Drug Free Sport New Zealand team can be very proud of what they’ve accomplished. We’re looking forward to working with them to make sure it lands in all the right places so we can bring comprehensive clean sport education into our schools.”
Mr Paterson emphasized the ways in which the learning design process recognises and centres the interests and motivations of young learners: “The student is at the heart of the Toolkit. It’s designed in ways we know will engage and excite them. In the very first lesson they hear from an established current or former Kiwi athlete, who breathes life into clean sport education through the stories they share. They then get hands-on with our augmented and virtual reality tech.”
The Toolkit brings together several elements of award-winning technology, built in collaboration with Sports Integrity Australia. Augmented reality (AR) enables students to ‘experience’ the health effects of commonly abused substances – an innovation that won the Best Use of Technology in Learning award at LearnX Live! 2020. Online learning module Clean Sport 101 took home the LearnX Live! award for Best Free eLearning Resource in the same year. There’s even a virtual reality (VR) experience that walks students through an athlete drug test, part of DFSNZ’s doping control process.
This grab-and-go anti-doping education resources align with NZ’s Health and Physical Education Curriculum by incorporating Hauora, the Māori philosophy of wellbeing. Lesson 1 is delivered online or in-person by a trained DFSNZ athlete educator, while Lessons 2-5 can be delivered in-class by teachers or used as homework assignments.
The Good Clean Sport School Toolkit is available now for free download by NZ intermediate and secondary school staff.