Twenty-one teams representing eight Far North primary schools took part in the Far North Primary Schools Mini Hockey field day at Taipa earlier this month.
The event saw the students playing a modified version of hockey on smaller sized grass fields, with no goalkeepers and using a softer ball. With
no specialised venue available north of the Maungamuka Gorge, the day represented a great opportunity for local primary school children to try their hand at the ball-and-stick game, noted spokeswoman Lesley Wallace.
"In being played on grass instead of artificial turf, this challenged the children to control the ball which in turn helped them learn from playing a modified version of the game as well as enabling them to discover and correct their own mistakes, and improve," she said.
She added organisers were chuffed to get great feedback from both children and the adults that supported them.
This included the likes of John Windleborn, Paparore School principal, who noted, "Our tamariki had a blast!", while Kathryn Carey, the principal at Pompallier Catholic School, commented, "Our kids and parents loved the entire day."
