Fitnessworx Pty Ltd is so excited to announce the opening of their very FIRST kids activity studio!  The studio will be open from April 2012 and is located in Mitcham, Vic.

“Fitnessworx P/L” was established in 2004 to address what was then quite an unmet need – to provide children that don’t like (or some that even fear) “traditional sports” with alternative ways to be active.  Fitnessworx activities range from Circus to Body Beat, Bootcamp to The Fitnessworx Amazing Race & much more – all activities promote being active AND having FUN!  Fitnessworx sessions are run in an engaging and inclusive way and allow every child the opportunity to achieve “success”.  The focus is not on competition or mastering technique.   

Fitnessworx think it is extremely important to acknowledge that “not all kids love “sport”, but that ALL kids NEED to be active” (Simone Minett, Director, Fitnessworx P/L).

Since 2004 Fitnessworx has provided a business to business service, working predominantly with preschools, primary schools and secondary schools.  The business grew very quickly (sometimes working with over 150 schools a week) and spread from VIC into NSW, QLD and SA .

Over the years Fitnessworx gained a lot of praise from parents with comments such as “my child never does sport – but look at them, they are loving this!” and many questions about where they could send their children so that they could carry on with these Fitnessworx activities once Fitnessworx left their school.

So … Fitnessworx are now very pleased to announce the launch of their very FIRST “Fitnessworx: active fun for kids” Activity Studio! It will provide kids with the opportunity to partake in Fitnessworx unique non-sport specific activity programs ongoing as term-based classes or during school holidays in their holiday workshops.

This is the place to send your children if they are keen to get moving, be active and have some fun – but don’t want the pressure of competition or exams!  With the range of activities on offer – there really is something for everyone!

The “Fitnessworx: active fun for kids” studio is also a great place to hold your next party!! So be sure to get in quick – we are taking partyworx by fitnessworxbookings from April 2012.

For enquiries regarding term 2 classes, April school holiday programs or to book a partyworx by fitnessworx date – please contact us…

t - 1300 668 338

e - info@fitnessworx.com.au

Health + PE Week is an initiative from ACHPER VICTORIA – Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

During the Health + PE Week celebration, schools are encouraged to promote health and physical education within the school and local community.

Health + PE Week can also be used to highlight the importance and value of leading a healthy and active lifestyle, through the promotion of health and physical education.

Health and PE Week 2011 will take place from 17 to 21 October.

Find out more about getting your school involved and check out the other HPE Week resources on the Activate Your School website.

Register now for your chance to receive a FREE activity session from Fitnessworx or a visit from a VIS High Performance athlete! Conditions apply.

 
There were 3 Fitnessworx sessions given away to schools that registered in Term 2.
Congratulations to:
1. Appin Park PS in Wangaratta,
2. Milgate PS in Doncaster East, and
3. St Patricks Catholic PS in Mentone

Fitnessworx is looking forward to getting out and working with your students this term! There will also be three more Fitnessworx Prizes given away to schools that register this term! So make sure you register your school now!!!

Health & PE Week Competitions

For Schools: Health & PE Week Best Practice Competition for Schools

The competition
Create a Health and PE Week program for your school that gets students, teachers, parents and your community involved in celebrating and promoting awareness of health, physical education and sport.

What you need to do
1. Go to the Health and PE Week section of the “Activate Your School” website and download ACHPER’s ‘Big Ideas’
2. Download the Health and PE week plan template.
3. Develop you school’s plan. Check out the sample Health and PE Week plans as a guide.
4. Include a new “Big Idea” or modify/extend one of ACHPER’s ‘Big Ideas’ to your local setting.
5. Run your Health and PE Week program
6. Submit your entry by COB Friday 28 October 2011

The categories
1. Primary
2. Secondary

The reward
1st prize $500 for the school’s HPE program
$500 will be awarded in each category

Prizes proudly sponsored by us – Fitnessworx for Schools specialising in activity programs with a difference.

The judging criteria
* Whole school involvement (staff and students).
* Community awareness/engagement (parents and local community).
* Evidence of curriculum links.
* Inclusion of a new ‘Big Idea’ or modified/extended ‘Big Idea’
* Overall innovation

Due date
* All entries must be received by the Branch by close of business Friday 28 October 2011.

How to enter
* Complete this entry form.
* Attach a copy of your Health and PE Week program and highlight your new ‘Big Idea’ or modified/extended ‘Big Idea’
* Send to: Suite 1, 651 Victoria St Abbotsford VIC 3067 or to achper@achper.vic.edu.au

Terms and conditions
* Schools may only enter once.
* All entries must be accompanied with this entry form and a copy of the schools HPE Week program to be considered in the competition.
* The Branch’s decision regarding competition winners is final.
* Winners announced on Thursday 24 November 2011 at the ACHPER Victorian Branch Conference.

For Students: Celebrating Health & PE

The challenge
Using art, multi-media presentations or a literacy piece, students are encouraged to tell a story about Physical Education or Health at your school. The challenge is to prepare a class submission addressing one of the following themes:
* PE and Sport ‘rocks’ at my school.
* We are happy and healthy at our school because…

Ideas for students to tell their stories include (but not limited to)
* paint a picture
* write a blog or create an digital poster (glogster.com.au)
* write a story, poem or song
* make a short video of a play, re-enactment or demonstration
* survey students, teachers, parents and present the data

Submission
* Entries must be a class submission involving all students and provided in electronic form. This may be an electronic document(s), a series of images presented via Power Point, a short video capturing all the work or a webpage(s).

Two categories
1. Primary (P-4)
2. Primary (5-6)

The prize
The winning classes will receive a class pack valued up to $500 (including a cap and water bottle for each student)

Prizes proudly sponsored by us – Fitnessworx for Schools specialising in activity programs with a difference.

The judging criteria
* Creativity, collective impact of the stories and depth of understanding of the themes

Due date
* All entries must be received by the Branch by close of business Friday 28 October 2011.

Terms and conditions
* A class may only enter once.
* Entries may be displayed publicly, for example on the Activate Your School website www.activate.vic.edu.au or at the ACHPER conference.
* Winners announced on Thursday 24 November 2011 at the ACHPER Victorian Branch Conference.
* Judges decisions are final.
* All entries must be accompanied with this entry form.

Health + PE Week is an initiative from ACHPER VICTORIA – Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

During the Health + PE Week celebration, schools are encouraged to promote health and physical education within the school and local community.

Health + PE Week can also be used to highlight the importance and value of leading a healthy and active lifestyle, through the promotion of health and physical education.

Health and PE Week 2010 will take place from 11 to 15 October.

Find out more about getting your school involved and check out the other HPE Week resources on the Activate Your School website.

Register now for your chance to receive a FREE activity session from Fitnessworx or a visit from a VIS High Performance athlete! Conditions apply.

Health & PE Week Competitions

For Schools: Health & PE Week Best Practice Competition for Schools

Create a Helath & PE Week program for your school that promotes awareness, gets students, teachers and parents involved in health and physical education or school sport and run this program during HPE week (Oct 11-15).

For more information, and to enter, click here.

1st Prize: $500 for your school

Prize Money proudly donated by us – Fitnessworx for Schools!!

For Students: Primary School Art & Multi Media Competition

Your challenge is to create a piece of art, multi media presentation or a piece of writing that tells a story about:

• the things you love doing in PE and Sport at your school, or
• the things you do that keep you healthy and happy

You could:

• write a story or poem
• paint a picture
• write a blog
• create a glog
• do a collage
• write a song
• make a short film

There are two categories for entry: Prep-Grade 4, and Grade 4-Grade 6

For more information, and to enter, click here.

Prizes in each category are as follows: 1st Prize $100, 2nd Prize $50

Prize Money proudly donated by us – Fitnessworx for Schools!!

Roll up, Roll up – come and enjoy this afternoon’s performance by Thalia and her Fabulous Friends. You will see juggling, acrobatics, cheerleading and more…

The voice boomed, encouraging all to come and see. You could well have been beneath a Silvers Circus Big Top, if it weren’t for the fact you were here to collect your 8 year old from Thalia’s birthday party at her home in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

The music starts up as the first act comes bouncing into the centre of the ring! With colored hair, costumes and BIG Smiles upon their faces they try to hide the concentration whilst remembering the juggling routine they’d put together earlier that day. Balls, ribbons and scarves go flying in all directions but everyone is clapping along and the kids are torn between laughing out loud and trying to show their true ‘performance face’ during their 5 minutes in the spotlight.

“As we thank our jugglers, can we now welcome onto the stage our acrobatic and cheerleading teams lead by Birthday Girl Thalia, to the modern beat of Rihanna’s You Can’t Stop the Music!” The ring leader, come professional party facilitator, was just so enthusiastic and passionate – the kids stared at her throughout their performance for ongoing nods of encouragement and the odd cue when a move was forgotten. I could just hear 20 little voices saying ‘mummy I want her at my party’ for weeks to come! Gone are the days of Fairies and Face Painting.

As my own 8 year old son took to the stage I held my breath not knowing quite how this was going to play out. We have not been able to encourage him to become involved in the local footy club with his brothers, and it has appeared to be nothing more than pure torture each time we have taken him along to a community run basketball clinic! In fact any form of exercise has always sent him running. So I could not believe it when I saw him out there in the midst of it all with a huge smile on his face, counting out the beat, performing some clever acrobatic moves and making his way to the centre of a pyramid base as they formed their final pose! He was just having so much fun that he seemed oblivious to his slightly increased rate of breathing and the beads of sweat rolling down his face! I decided I wouldn’t mention that.

The performance ended to huge applause from waiting parents and soon after the room was a buzz with excited chatter as each child gave their rendition of the afternoon’s activities.

I overheard Kristy, the party facilitator, explaining to a couple of mums the origins of Partyworx by Fitnessworx. She explained that the company worked with hundreds of primary schools each week and was established to address the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of today’s youth. They could target children that often shied away from competitive team sports by encouraging them to be involved in non-sport specific Fitnessworx programs that focused on inclusiveness, being active and just HAVING FUN. Aidan, still sporting his bright red face, appeared to be proof that this was a theory that worked!

I chuckled to myself in the car on the way home, wondering how I would explain to my husband that I had just penciled in a Partyworx by Fitnessworx party for Aidan’s next birthday (which was over 5 months away!). My husband had often heard me scoff with disbelief at the extraordinary lengths people were going to now-a-days to outdo each other and hold the newest, most unique and BEST birthday party for their child. From jewellery making to ponies, clowns and cooking classes – was I being drawn into this battle of the parents?? Was this hypocritical??

I decided to give myself a break, comforted by the explanation to self that this was actually an activity that surpassed being just a unique, fun birthday party idea – it was actually “good for them”.

And with that comforting realization, I quickly called Kristy back to book a 5 year old and 12 year old party too – well, my daughters simply wouldn’t let me forget it if Aidan’s party outdid theirs!!!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PARTYWORX BY FITNESSWORX PARTIES

Physical Activity that’s not sport? Huh?

When it comes to getting active, for too long now, kids have been presented with the same old options – netball, footy, cricket etc. And whilst these options definitely get you moving – for kids that fear the competitive nature of many teams sports, the inspiration to get active is quickly overcome by the negative impact of being picked last or just standing out as being `no good’.

Well, Fitnessworx is here to show that there are many other paths to getting active. From dance to circus, cheerleading to bootcamp, frisbee to skipping and team based challenges inspired by “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” – everyone can benefit from physical activity and have loads of fun at the same time!

Fitnessworx offer schools…

Curriculum based and Co-curricular programs – these are external provider compliant and have been mapped against syllabus outcomes and indicators in VIC, QLD, NSW and SA;

Programs across the curriculum – whilst the Health and Physical Education syllabus seems an obvious starting point for the inclusion of a Fitnessworx activity program, using physical activity to complement the syllabus and/or enhance learning across other disciplines provides an effective extended learning option and engages children via a different method of learning;

Activities external to the curriculum – offering additional/optional activities to your students outside of the standard curriculum, and especially activities that are targeted at encouraging traditionally inactive children to be active, can demonstrate to your school community the value your school places on living a healthy and active lifestyle.

Click here to read more about Fitnessworx in Schools

On any other day the footy oval at Kinglake West could remind anyone of the horrific events that occurred only months earlier. Eerie and bare, with obvious signs of destruction, black and amber dominated the landscape as far as the eye could see.

But this day was different…

There was loads of colour, a buzz of energy in the air, laughter, squeals of delight and cheers from in excess of 250 kids. The surrounding landscape and everything it represented paled into insignificance for the next few hours.

And that was the aim – today was all about the kids. The event was a Gala Day for children from four Primary Schools in the Kinglake area – directly affected by the horrific events of Black Saturday. Sporting celebrities, politicians and several organizations donated their time and services so that these kids could just come along and have some fun!

And that they did. From golf to soccer, bungee to Fitnessworx cheerleading and so much more! There was a total of 13 different activities. Everyone joined in and had a ball.

There was not a mention of the event that had rocked their community in recent times. Every child had a smile on their face. There were kids here that had faced significant loss, perhaps their homes or even a family member – but you wouldn’t have known that. Today, they just wanted to be happy, and this was infectious – everyone involved in the day had a great time!

If you’re as fortunate as me, every now and then your job allows you to be involved in an event that leaves a lasting impression on both your mind and your heart. But it wasn’t until I was back in the office, the day after the Kinglake Gala, that I realised just how much I’d been affected. I sat and reflected for a while on the extraordinary resilience of a child.

To view media coverage from the King Lake Gala Day click here