Hawke's Bay Pau Te Hau (Get Puffed) child fitness findings due in April

Carter Pirie explores the outdoors, enjoying a game of Tug o' War. Photo / Supplied

Research projects aiming to get children aged 3-12 more physically active are focusing on Hawke's Bay kids.

Pau Te Hau (Get Puffed) is entering its second year, with 300 students from Years 5-8 involved across eight Hawke's Bay primary schools.

Meanwhile, Bay local Wendy Pirie's Movement Active Physical Play (MAPP) programme is aimed at creating physical activity opportunities within an education setting for children between 3 and 5 years old.

Pau Te Hau was led by Auckland University of Technology associate professor Dr Nigel Harris and supported locally by the Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and funding from Royston Health Trust.

The $1.3 million Health Research Council-funded project was disrupted by Covid in 2021 but the findings from the Hawke's Bay schools are set to be released in April.

Students spent 10-15 minutes doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with real-time heart rate monitoring within a classroom setting.

"What we already know is that the schools, teachers and students enjoyed the classroom workouts and are keen to continue this as part of their curriculum," Dr Harris said.

"Essentially we want to help teachers with a practical programme that is easy to use so it becomes an integral part of the school week and has meaningful impact on kids' health and wellbeing."

The MAPP programme extends from preliminary work by the Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is part of Wendy Pirie's PhD studies.

Teachers introduce the characters Max, Ann, Piri and Pip and their "movement adventures" in 15-minute sessions.

"It's important to create fun physical activity opportunities at the earliest age possible, so that children learn movement skills but start a lifelong journey of being active," Pirie said.

Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust health and sport performance manager Joe Payton said teachers do not need specific knowledge or sports skills to lead the sessions in either programme, with some being underpinned by Mātauranga Māori in the form of setting the exercise to traditional Māori stories (pūrākau), and the use of te reo Māori.

"We work with students in different programmes and we think that having an effective teacher-led programme that is easy to sustain is particularly valuable," he said.

"Seeing the improvement in kids' fitness levels is great but more importantly they are really keen to move and push themselves physically, which is really satisfying."