Brett Weber, from Kamo High School, has been crowned NZ’s Fastest Teacher after winning his age category and beating all other category winners in sprint races at the inaugural NZ Teachers’ Games held in Mt Maunganui  from 1-3 October.

The NZ Teachers’ Games, hosted by Sport Bay of Plenty, was the brainchild of New Zealand Secondary School Sport CEO Garry Carnachan and was modelled on the Australian Teachers’ Games. The underlying concept is that teachers play an integral part in developing a love of movement, play, physical activity and sport for young people. As a consequence, it makes sense to support teachers to be active and value their own participation in physical activity and sport.

The aim of the 2017 event was to attract 300 teacher entries. It proved to be so popular that a total of 600 teachers from around NZ registered. Sports included Touch, Around the Mount Relay, Amazing Race, Bowls, Badminton, Dodgeball, Netball, Ultimate Frisbee, King and Queen of the Mount, Beach Volleyball, Golf and two trivia nights.

Northland was represented by a group of teachers named Whangarei Primary Sweeties which also included a teacher from Kerikeri Primary and Kamo High Schools.While the Dodgeball and Futsal competitions were the team’s training focus prior to the event, the Northland representatives decided to take advantage of the opportunity to enter events that occurred prior to their competition.

Whangarei Primary Sweeties gained Bronze in the second of the ‘Trivia with a Twist’ competitions, exhibiting good general knowledge and musical ability. Against the other teams in the Dodgeball competition from Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, they won Silver medals.

Team spokesperson Teresa Battersby paid compliment to not only the quality of the competitions but to the organisation of the overall event. Whangarei Primary are definitely looking forward to returning to the Bay of Plenty region again next year and would urge other schools in Northland to do the same.

Photos supplied - Kamo HS teacher, Brett Weber, receiving his Gold medal for Fastest Teacher in NZ from NZSSSC CEO Garry Carnachan at the NZTG in Mt Maunganui 

 Whangarei Primary Sweeties The team won Silver at the NZTG