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Promoting healthier lifestyles in schools
Promoting healthy eating and encouraging Kiwi kids to become more active is the focus of a new government-wide action plan for schools and early childhood education services. The $67 million Mission-On campaign will help fight New Zealand children following a global trend in declining levels of physical activity and increasing obesity from a very young age. Mission-On aims to give New Zealand's children, young people and their families the tools to become healthier, so they can lead active and successful lives.
Team Up launches new resources for parents
Helping parents get more involved in their children's learning is the aim of a new booklet and website enhancement launched this week by Education Minister Steve Maharey and Team-Up Education Ambassador, Tana Umaga. The new resources are the latest addition to the government's Team-Up campaign, which encourages parents to support their children's learning. Research shows that when parents, families and whanau are involved children have a much better chance of succeeding in their education. These resources provide practical ideas and advice for parents to help them support their kids in and out of school. www.teamup.govt.nz
Giving children the best possible start
A new package of early intervention services aimed at giving children the best possible start in life is receiving over $7 million of government funding. The Early Years package will establish seven Early Years Service Hubs, provide eight service co-ordinators dedicated to helping teenage parents and their children, extend the Early Start and Family Start programmes, and trial a Canadian programme, Roots of Empathy. Effective, early interventions for vulnerable families and their children have proven to have positive, long-term, wide-ranging effects. This package builds on existing services and makes them more effective by improving their co-ordination and helping families to access them.
Fisheries science scholarship established
The Ministry of Fisheries and NIWA this week announced a joint graduate scholarship programme in quantitative fisheries science. MFish will provide funding while NIWA will provide supervision and mentoring to the successful scholarship candidates, resulting in up to 3 graduate students each year developing expertise in quantitative fisheries research, with particular emphasis on the assessment of fish stocks modelling, an area where there is a shortage of trained graduates in New Zealand.
Review finds decline in camping opportunities
A national review of camping areas published this week found a noticeable decline in camping areas over the last decade. The review, commissioned in January following widespread public concern, demonstrates that rising land prices and alternative development have bit hard in to the commercial camping opportunities with a net reduction of about 70 campgrounds nationally since 1996. More than 20 camping grounds have disappeared in the Coromandel region alone. The government is to look into options for tackling this decline, and will discuss them with the commercial camping sector, and regional and local authorities.
Launch of military pageant
The Year of the Veteran will be honoured by a military pageant celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association Verterans' Affairs Minister Rick Barker announced this week. The military pageant will be held on 3 November at Wellington's Westpac Stadium and will feature tributes to the service and sacrifice of veterans from the Boer War to the present day.
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