Top Outdoor Spot competition returns for 2015

29 January 2015

Top Outdoor Spot competition returns for 2015

Kiwi school children are being encouraged to snap photos, draw pictures and share creative descriptions of their favourite outdoor places in the 2015 Top Outdoor Spot competition.

The competition is being run on the New Zealand Walking Access Commission's Both Sides of the Fence (bothsidesofthefence.org.nz) education website from 26 January to 20 March 2015.

Both Sides of the Fence is a curriculum-aligned website which encourages students up to year 8 to think about the value of access to the outdoors as part of the Kiwi way of life. It supports English and Social Sciences learning areas and EOTC activities, including school camps and field trips.

New Zealand Walking Access Commission Chief Executive Mark Neeson said the Top Outdoor Spot competition provided teachers with an entertaining and educational means of raising awareness of responsible behaviour in the outdoors.

“The competition aims to get children thinking about why they value the outdoors and why our access culture and heritage is so important. Many schools run camps and other outdoor activities during term one and the Both Sides of the Fence website is an engaging way for teachers to inform children about responsible behaviour when accessing the outdoors.”

The 2015 competition includes a new prize category – “Best Drawing” – and improved prizes, thanks to generous support from Farmside, Skellerup, the Kiwi Sock Company, Wild South Clothing and the Cancer Society of New Zealand.

The students who contribute the "Best Photo", “Best Drawing” and "Best Description" will each win a prize pack including an Apple iPad mini courtesy of Farmside, Skellerup Red Band gumboots, Kiwi Sock Company 70 Mile Bush socks, a $60 Wild South Clothing voucher and a Dash day pack. Their schools will each win a $100 book voucher and a Cancer Society of New Zealand 1L pump bottle of sun lotion.

Second and third place winners in each category will also receive prizes for themselves and their schools.

Mr Neeson said the 2015 Top Outdoor Spot competition built on the success of the 2014 event, which attracted more than 150 photos, drawings and descriptions across the country.

The 2014 winners were 7-year-old Woodlands School student Emma Cloke for her photo of driftwood huts on Opotiki Beach, and 12-year-old Opotiki Primary School student Sinead Herewini, for her quintessentially New Zealand poem about Te Araroa.

ENDS

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