Student Voice Team 

The Exciting News Shared at Assembly This Week

As reported in last week's newsletter, we shared the exciting news that WPS will be our very own GAGA Pit in our school playground. At this week's Years 3-6 Assembly, we got to share the exciting news with all the students.

Here is a summary of the exciting news shared at Assembly this week:

As you know, the Student Voice Team has spent all year meeting and discussing ways that we think we could improve our school. There have been many ideas and suggestions during our meetings, and I want to thank everyone for meeting in their classrooms each week and sharing their ideas and thoughts.

You might have seen in last week's newsletter that an announcement was made to let the whole school community know that very soon, a GAGA Pit will be installed at our school for all students to use.

A gaga pit is an enclosed space, usually octagonal, used to play gaga ball, a fast-paced, low-impact game similar to dodgeball. Players strike a soft ball with their hands, aiming to hit others below the knees to eliminate them. The simple rules make it easy for students of all ages to join in. 

Through play, students develop important social skills such as teamwork, turn-taking and positive interaction, while also supporting their wellbeing by releasing energy and returning to class more focused and ready to learn. The short, fast-paced games provide regular opportunities to build resilience, practise fair play and manage both winning and losing. Additionally, the use of a soft ball and a below-the-knees rule helps minimise risk, with the enclosed pit creating a safe and easily supervised play environment.

Overall, a gaga pit promotes active, inclusive and enjoyable play, supporting students’ physical, social and emotional development.

We look forward to our GAGA Pit hopefully being ready for us all to use later this year.

Thank you for listening.