Tūturu on show at Embracing Change conference in Rotorua

On the 13-14 July, five members of the Tūturu team travelled from around the country to Rotorua to attend Physical Education New Zealand's Embracing Change conference.

It was the first event Tūturu staff had attended since the Tūturu Summit in 2020 and great to be back out and about following more than two years of Covid disruptions.

Several hundred health, physical education teachers, leaders, and other school staff were in attendance, as well as around 20 exhibitors. 

Across the two days, Tūturu staff spoke with dozens of teachers from more than 50 schools.  We actively discussed the whole school approach and had conversations about where teachers felt there were gaps in student health and wellbeing education in New Zealand.

Tūturu Operations Manager, Tumokai Morgan, said said it had been awesome for Tūturu to engage with schools and talk about wellbeing issues that were important to them.

"It was a great opportunity to connect, in-person, around such an important kaupapa. We could clearly feel the energy for supporting our rangatahi. We were stoked to see teachers realising how Tūturu could support their mahi and the excitement it created."

There was widespread interest in some of the resources that Tūturu has produced, particularly our thinking critically about energy drinks and vaping and cannabis resources.

Vaping continues to be of great interest to teachers and schools. Many teachers and staff were eager to grow their understanding around vaping and how to better support their rangatahi as they navigate this space.

On the second day of the conference, Tūturu, in collaboration with Ben Youdan of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) gave a presentation on vaping. The presentation dispelled some of the myths and misperceptions about vaping, highlighted what the evidence shows, and provided a tangible pathway for rangatahi to continue to grow their ability to think critically on topics relevant to them.

Overall, it was a great event and fantastic for Tūturu to make connections with so many passionate teaching staff. We look forward to getting out into the community more this year.