WAVE Term 4 Newsletter:

 

 

WAVE Evaluation

Following five years since the launch of WAVE, the WAVE Evaluation has been released and is now available:

Final WAVE Evaluation 

Scroll down to read about our Evaluation Celebration.

WAVE Turns Five!

To coincide with the celebration of WAVE's first five years a report evaluating the programme has been released. Overall the evaluation report found that South Canterbury education settings value WAVE and see it as an effective partnership of health and education. 

 Currently, 94% of education settings in the South Canterbury DHB region are participating in WAVE.  This includes 100% of tertiary education providers, 86% of ECEs, 95% of primary schools and 100% of secondary schools.  Participants see WAVE as a "one stop shop" for health, coordinating all health-related issues for schools. 

 The report documents the wide range of health promotion activities that have occurred over the past five years under WAVE. Key successes highlighted include increases in Māori health activities, the increasing focus on mental health promotion, the enthusiasm of student-led health promotion initiatives and the support these receive from their local communities.

 There is valuable baseline information that allows progress of WAVE to be measured, enabling an understanding of what has worked in WAVE and what challenges have been encountered. Comparing this baseline information to the evaluation's findings shows that there were statistically significant improvements in the following areas:

 ECEs showed improvements between baseline and follow-up in the area of professional development for physical activity and SunSmart, and in working with external providers when promoting physical activity. 

• Primary schools showed statistically significant improvements between baseline and follow-up in the area of nutrition (for example, students being able to identify healthy food choices) and in the area of professional development for SunSmart. 
• There were also statistically significant improvements over time for the place of Hauora in the learning experience (at ECE level) and the place of whānau (at primary level). 

 In addition to the statistically significant improvements, some encouraging trends have been identified. The extent to which ECEs, primary and secondary schools believe the WAVE process has assisted them in the promotion of health and well-being has increased steadily over the past five years. There is also an improvement in how well ECEs and primary schools think their work with WAVE has been addressing the health and well-being of Māori students. 

The provision of professional development by WAVE has been shown to be of particular value to participating education settings. Education settings also value the role played by facilitators, the WAVE Resource Centre, the ability to access people with expert or specialist knowledge, and the financial support of the WAVE and Nutrition funds, which allow health-promoting environments to be established. The evaluation showed that teachers had become role models for health messages, and that involvement in WAVE had led to the development of policies and guidelines that protect and promote the health and well-being of students. 

 Pleasingly, the evaluation found that families of students were indirectly influenced by health messages taken home by students, as well as through their conversations about WAVE.  WAVE has supported the formation of student-led health promotion groups, and the evaluation report suggests that this has in turn led to greater community participation in promoting health in schools.

 So what is WAVE?

WAVE is a health promotion initiative that works collaboratively between education, health and Sport South Canterbury.  WAVE works across all levels of education to help create and support healthy environments for the children and young people of South Canterbury. The aim of WAVE is for long-term gain in health and education outcomes.

            

WAVE Evaluation Celebration

On Wednesday, 2 November, a very special event took place: the celebration of five successful years since the launch of WAVE, coinciding with the release of the WAVE evaluation report.  Representatives from education settings, our stakeholders, along with many others who had been involved with the WAVE programme over the past years, were invited to join us for an evening to celebrate our successes, hear about the findings of the evaluation, and listen to a selection of presentations from some of our settings.

Koru Bruce Wikitoa, SCDHB kaumatua, began the evening by welcoming everyone to the event.  This was followed by Chris Fleming, SCDHB CEO, who acknowledged the achievements of WAVE as one of the SCDHB's long-term initiatives, and thanked all those involved.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Daniel Williams gave a presentation on "WAVE - the first five years", which summarised the success of WAVE, illustrated by the evaluation results.  Daniel concluded that WAVE had been an effective way for health, physical activity and education to work together in a win-win way. He reiterated that WAVE was a unique South Canterbury success story: nowhere else in the country has taken such a comprehensive approach to promoting health in education. WAVE can therefore be seen as a great investment for health in South Canterbury. Daniel finished by sincerely thanking all of those present for the roles they have played in making WAVE a reality.

 This was followed by four presentations representing each of the education sectors: Tania Boland and Liz Mills from Geraldine Kindergarten spoke about WAVE support in their bicultural journey and their recent Matariki celebrations;  Chresta Martin from Timaru Girls High spoke about their Urban Team and the work they are doing in collaboration with the Timaru District Council and ECAN on the new metro bus route; Adam Rivett from Waimate Main talked about the results they have achieved in the Kiwi Sport Waimate cluster, and Anna Reihana from the WAVE team talked about Youth Week and the success of the art workshops and art exhibition.

Guests were then treated to a short video showing a range of activities in our settings, along with interviews with some key people involved with WAVE, who described the nature of their involvement with WAVE and what WAVE had meant to them over the years.

On behalf of the WAVE team, thank you to all of those who attended our event and have supported WAVE over the past 5 years.

 

 

 

 

                    

WAVE on Facebook!!

WAVE South Canterbury is now on Facebook!  Check out the Facebook link at the bottom of the page..

                   

Secondary Schools' Youth Forum

On 10 May 40 students from eight WAVE schools were accompanied by their lead teachers to attend the Secondary School Student WAVE Team Youth Forum.  Go to the Health Stories in the Secondary section for a full report and photos... 

                   

Jump Jam

The Sport South Canterbury Jump Jam Extravaganza 2011 took place on 31 May .   This year a total of 17 South Canterbury schools took part, with 38 teams and 374 participants competing.  Check out the Newsletter (above) or Health Stories in the Primary section for a full report, along with some awesome photos..!

                  

World Smokefree Day

31 May 2011 was World Smokefree Day. This year a challenge went out to primary and secondary school students at the WAVE youth forums to come up with two promotions within their schools to raise awareness of the Smokefree message.   To read more, go to the Health Stories in the Secondary section ... 

SADD - Vision Goggles Presentation   

The Twizel Area School SADD team conducted a presentation using the very popular "vision goggles" during lunch hour on 26 May 2011.  Go to the Health Stories in the Secondary section for a full report and photos...