Aspirational Childhood Education Programme, Auckland

The pilot for the ACE Programme was held at a low decile primary school in South Auckland during February to April 2019. Sixteen diverse students aged around 10 years old were selected by the school to partake in the pilot. The programme combines tennis tuition with life skills targeting disadvantaged children. For each lesson a primary life skill is introduced and demonstrated by an activity or game, e.g. communication, responsibility, honesty, problem solving and the fact that everything has a value. As the lessons are delivered free of charge to the children, IC NZ decided with the school that the children should choose some act of service beneficial to the school as a payment in kind. Our aspiration is to take 150 children through the eight week ACE programme by the end of 2019.