Children at six New Zealand schools have been side-stepping, tackling, kicking and dribbling their way to fitness with a little help from Packaworld International.

The Wellington-based company provided a set of hybrid football/rugby goals to Wellsford School, Pukeoware School, Turaki Primary School, Grants Braes School, Leeston Consolidated School and Rakaia School after they won a competition on Packaworld’s Facebook page.

The competition called on principals, teachers and send in inspiring nominations for their local schools, outlining why they deserved to win and how the goals would be used.

Pukeoware School in Waiuku received an impressive 15 nominations, more than any other school.

Young footballers in Waihi, New Zealand, kicked off for another year on Sunday when around 100 children and their parents made their way to Morgan Park for the first 2019 session of Waihi AFC’s Junior Football Programme.

This year’s programme has an expanded age bracket, allowing for older children to take part. Age groups range from 4-14 for both girls and boys, and each session includes skills drills and fun games, followed by a match.

Programme organiser Richard James said he was thrilled with the turnout and was looking forward to another successful year. New portable Youth Packagoals from Packaworld International were helping the programme to grow, he said.

Match days against other local clubs were being planned throughout the season, in addition to the regular Sunday sessions at Morgan Park, to give your players a chance to test their skills against others in the region.

An inflatable football pitch made its New Zealand debut recently as part of a pioneering after school programme being run at Glenview School in Porirua.

The programme – known as the Homework Club – sees volunteers from the community and local businesses visit the decile 1 school twice a week to talk about their work and help out with activities such as reading, cooking, crafts and sport.

​​Last week’s Homework Club focused on sport and saw around 20 Glenview students don the footballing colours of Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and France for an afternoon of football fun.

More action, more time on the ball, and more fun. That’s the difference a new fully-contained inflatable pitch is making for children taking part in the Grasshopper Soccer Redlands junior football programme in Queensland, Australia.

The programme is run by William Fraser, a former Queensland U18 national premier league assistant coach and Brisbane Roar community coach.

Mr Fraser has coached football for 20 years and now devotes his time to developing the next generation with a programme that focuses on improving children’s athleticism and motor skills using the beautiful game as a vehicle.

One of Wellington’s largest junior football clubs is looking to the future with a recent purchase of 20 Junior Football Packagoals from Packaworld International.

North Wellington Junior Football Club President Andrew Vines says the club plans to use the portable, inflatable goals to inspire players taking part in its ‘First Kicks’ and 'Fun Football' programmes, designed for the youngest age groups of 4-8 -year olds.

The junior programme involves teams of five, with no goalkeeper. The two metre by one metre Junior Football Packagoals meet New Zealand Football Junior Framework standards for First Kicks and Fun Football, making them “absolutely ideal” for the format, Mr Vines says.

A social football programme helping Aucklanders get their kicks has added portable, inflatable goals to its arsenal for the summer.

FootballFix provides five-a-side and seven-a-side football leagues across 11 sites in Auckland, with thousands of players competing each week. It also operates an after-school coaching programme and junior tournaments at a purpose-built academy in Albany.

Ten Junior Football Packagoals from Packaworld International will feature in the academy’s junior coaching and holiday programmes, and FootballFix Director Marc Prenty says he is really putting the new goals through their paces.