Kaihautū Whakahaere Update: July 2025

As Term 3 begins, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make the 2025 PENZ Conference in Queenstown such a success. It was a privilege to gather with so many passionate and committed physical educators from across the motu.

To all our attendees, ngā mihi nui for your energy, contributions, and willingness to connect, share, and grow together. Special thanks to Event Mergers, our Conference Management team, for their professionalism and care in delivering such a seamless event. We are especially grateful to Wakatipu High School for hosting us with such generosity, and to all the presenters, volunteers, partners, and sponsors who brought the programme to life.

Your support and commitment are what continue to drive this organisation forward. Together, we reaffirmed the strength of our community and the vital place of physical education in the lives of our tamariki and rangatahi.

A special acknowledgement to all those who were nominated for this year’s PENZ Awards, your dedication and service to the profession does not go unnoticed. To our award recipients, congratulations. Your work uplifts our field, challenges us to be better, and reminds us of the impact physical education can have across communities.

The work on our new curriculum continues to develop, and we’re staying closely connected with the Ministry of Education to ensure physical education is well supported in both guidance and practice.

While we have little in the way of specifics, we are becoming increasingly concerned abut the lack of any direct priorities relating to the movement experiences of young people and its importance in learning.

We know that physical education plays a critical role in both the development and learning of our young people. With an increasing focus on priorities such as reading, writing and math, which are both necessary and essential, there is also a risk of marginalising, limiting or eliminating movement experiences for students.

One area of focus, as an organisation, is on calling for the mandatory inclusion of daily physical education experiences for all children in Years 1-10. This is not to preclude students in Years 11-13, where meaningful PE experiences are both powerful and transformative, but is an acknowledgment of the need for a strong foundation of movement experiences.

There are multiple ways these experiences could be delivered and integrated daily. We are working on a resource for Primary educators, that attempts to connect possible PE experiences to progress outcomes in the early phases of both English and Maths. In essence, we believe PE should be a part of every students day and they should have meaningful opportunities to move and learn.

In the coming weeks and months, you will hear more from us about how we can support our school communities with prioritising movement and physical education. In the meantime, we encourage you to reach out if you have ideas, feedback, or thoughts about what you’d like to see in future guidance and resources. Your voice helps shape our advocacy.

Finally, we are excited to share that we are celebrating National HPE Day on 3 September. The last time we championed this initiative was back in 2019.

National HPE Day is a call to action! It's a chance to highlight the importance of Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum and the influence it has on the lives and learning of tamariki and rangatahi.

It’s a great opportunity to spotlight the value of HPE in your school or kura, in your club or community, and to celebrate the ways movement, connection, and wellbeing are woven into our everyday live. For those wishing to participate, you can expect to receive more information in the coming weeks.

As a part of the celebration of all things PE, we are calling on individuals to share a short clip (no more than 30 secs) giving a shout-out to their PE teacher! It doesn't matter when you went to school, we'd love to be able to share your shout-out with others. Just a thanks is more than enough!!! If you're happy to share, please email your short clip to [email protected].

In the meantime, if you're keen to partner with us to support this initiative, we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you once again for all you do to champion physical education across the motu.