In 2013 Sport Wellington, in collaboration with College Sport Wellington, completed research looking at sport participation among five different colleges in the Wellington Region.   The aim of the Secondary School Sport Research (SSSR) project was to better understand whether the types of sport and recreation currently being offered were in line with the wants, needs, motivations, preferences and desires of of secondary school age students in the Wellington region.

Click to read the Secondary School Sport Research – Report

Some of the key findings from the report were:

• Students wanted to have-a-go at sports before committing to a season.
• Students wanted sport to be social and to have fun with friends.  Sports or schools should thus provide a social league were possible.
• Schools should offer sports the students were interested in.
• Cost is a big barrier to participation.
• Students that are current non-participants would prefer to play a shorter season (4-6 weeks).
• Sport providers should offer mixed gender grades for those wanting to play in a social league.

As a result of this research, Sport Wellington has been working on a project with Porirua and Bishop Viard Colleges, aiming to increase sport participation of the students by targeting the needs and reducing the barriers for current non-participating students (students currently not engaged in school sport.

Mixed Gender Social Sport

One of the key findings above recommended that sport providers should offer mixed gender grades for those wanting to play in a social league.  This theory was put to the test, with Porirua based secondary schools playing in a six week  mixed social competition.  A further paper was written in regards to this pilot, click here to read Mixed Gender Social Sport: Increasing participation of female college students.