children in Central Hawkes Bay. Capturing the voice of tamariki is an important exercise and one that is necessary to properly

understand play in Central Hawkes Bay. By fully understanding the state of play in the region, better decisions can be made to

ensure investment is directed to where it will have the greatest impact. In line with Sport New Zealand’s desire to improve the

physical activity levels of children aged 5-12 years old, it was determined primary and intermediate school age children were the

most suitable for the study. To gather a cross-section of opinions it was decided to survey at least seven schools throughout Central

Hawkes Bay. The schools were randomly selected and included a combination of urban and rural schools. This included Waipukurau

school, Terrace school, Waipawa school, Otane school, Takapau school, Porangahau school and Sherwood school. The number of

participants varied for each school.

Paper Survey

A paper-based survey was chosen as the preferred method of data collection as opposed to an online survey. It was important to use

a method that aligned with the intention to direct Play away from devices, as well as being an effective way to elicit information from

children within this age-group. The survey used was provided by Sport New Zealand and was the same survey used by Sport

Manawatu, Hutt City Council, Upper Hutt City Council and Sport Whanganui (See Appendix A, State of Play survey form).

Survey Distribution

Preliminary meetings were held with the principal of each school to introduce the survey and the information being sought. All were

100% behind the survey and committed to working with the insights and findings that may result. The surveys were delivered to the

participating schools in May 2021. Each school then determined the classes and age groups they would involve in the survey and

were given 3-4 weeks for the survey to be completed in class time and returned to Sport Hawke’s Bay. Participation by the students

was entirely voluntary.

Survey Responses/Sample Size

679 paper survey responses were returned from Tamariki across Central Hawke’s Bay. This is currently the largest single capture of

Tamariki voice for Play in New Zealand. This sample size is considered more than ample for eliciting the necessary information to

provide the level of insight required to aid policy makers and facility providers to formulate strategies to increase children’s play

opportunities in Central Hawkes Bay.

Data entry and analysis

Upon the surveys being returned, Sport Hawkes Bay staff entered the data manually into survey monkey. The data was sorted and

analysed on the following basis:

All Data – to produce insights from a district wide perspective

Urban schools – analysing data from Waipukurau school, Terrace school and Waipawa school

Rural schools with a village centre – analysing data from Takapau school, Otane school and Porangahau school

Rural Schools without a village centre – A decision was made to treat Sherwood school separately to the other rural schools.

This is because Sherwood does not have a village centre and the surrounding environment of the school is unique when

compared to the other schools involved. For this reason, the Sherwood data was excluded from rural calculations but still

included in the Central Hawkes Bay calculations.

It is particularly important that within close proximity of where children live are easily accessible open spaces, where they are able to

play freely. The World Health Organisation recommends that urban residents should be able to access public green space within 500

meters or 10 minutes’ walk from their home. Rural residents are typically fortunate in having large sections of open space within

their properties that children can play within. However, these children may also be isolated from other play spaces meaning that if

they don’t like to play at home they may play very minimally. The results below outline when and where surveyed children play the

most, where their favourite place to play is and how close that is to their home.

A notable observation from the results was that there is no difference between where urban and rural kids play the most. Both groups shared the same top three play locations, being at home, at a school or at a friend’s house. Interestingly, these top locations are fairly localised and community/neighbourhood locations such as the park/playground, on the street or natural environments ranked lower in popularity. It was thought that this may be due to safety concerns, but as further results illustrate this is unlikely to be the case with 79% of children indicating they usually feel safe when playing outside in their neighbourhood. Accessibility also didn’t appear to be an issue with 81% of children indicating that it was very or quite easy to go outside and play in their neighbourhood. However, as later results reveal, children identified that the biggest barriers preventing them from playing outside are being too busy on electronic devices and there being nothing to do or nowhere to go and play in their neighbourhood. What this may tell us is that childrens preference in leisurely activities is potentially shifting towards more sedentary and indoor based as opposed to active and outdoor activities. We know from research that this will ultimately hinder childrens development, learning and overall wellbeing. The children were then asked to identify their most favourite place to play of all which portrayed similar results across Central Hawke's Bay with home being the most popular, followed by a friend’s house and then at school. An interesting finding however was the change for rural children as they play at school the second most of any location, but it ranked fourth in popularity, topped in third by park/playground.

For the most part, the results reflected that as a child in Central Hawkes Bay being able to go outside and play in your neighbourhood is fairly accessible with 81% of children indicating that it was very or quite easy to do so. While it is great that majority of the children indicated this it still leaves 19% of children who feel as though it is not easy to go outside and play in their neighbourhood. Interestingly, this was the same for both the urban and rural kids. Of the children who indicated it is not easy and fairly inaccessible some common themes emerged including: “I live away from town on a farm so there is only us and no neighbourhood”, “not allowed to play in the street for safety reasons” and “never tried”.

When asked what would make it easier to play and hangout more in your neighbourhood, having a street party/event, being provided with things to do or play with and convincing parents to play with me were the most popular answers across Central Hawkes Bay.

These answers were the same for urban children, but interestingly rural kids expressed that finding safer ways to cross and play on the street was more of a priority than convincing their parents to play with them.