The program is so successful as it uses extrinsic motivation from gamification features to engage students in healthy choices and then over the course of the event, they start to feel the positive impact of their choices - which is the key to developing intrinsic motivation and ensuring those healthy behaviors are maintained after the event finishes. Building their own avatar and seeing 'themselves' visiting and experiencing some amazing destinations is an element tamariki love and motivates them. We have made this simple, we assign a random avatar to every student, then from your Teacher login you can click each Student and then they can customise their avatar. Or they can use their own login you provide to them and do it at any time. They can also update their avatar during the event and see the changes reflected in the photos and videos - we generate over 400,000 unique photos during the event!

When your class team completes each leg you will see a video of your unique Avatars exploring that destination, guided by one or more of our amazing ambassadors Ardie Savea, Ameliaranne Ekenasio and Kane Williamson and our founder Kim Harvey who offer encouragement, information about the destination and some relevant healthy behaviour tips along the way. As we can't display an entire class in each scene, we rotate your avatars through each scene - we know your students really look forward to seeing themselves so we try to have each student feature in at least two scenes. There is some complex technology involved rendering, recording and streaming the HTML5 animations so we hope you enjoy watching them as much as we do making them.

Because the Zespri Young and Healthy Virtual Adventure Challenge is all about cultivating healthy habits, the class team can move around the global course using a number of different measures; - time spent doing "huff and puff" activity - tracking steps - eating fruit and vege's - hydrating with water or milk - minimising leisure screen time - getting enough quality sleep time and more....... ​ Students can enter their own daily information into their profiles, or if you have younger students you can click their avatar on your home page and enter data for them or use teh "Enter Class Data' button to easily enter 1 set of data that will be applied across your whole class.

Entering data into the virtual adventure site takes about 5 minutes and ideally that is done every day but every second day is OK. We suggest you first give your students the opportunity to enter their own data via their login (they may also be able to do this at home each evening with the support of their parents), then you use 'Enter Class Data' to and enter one student's data or an average - that will then 'fill in' that data for any students who have not entered their own data and keep your class team on track. When your class "team" reaches the end of a leg, you will trigger an animation to watch together. The animations are about 2-3 minutes in length. So overall this 'positive' device time may only be 5-10 minutes a day.

You need to have an internet connection to access the Challenge HTML website.

Approximately 35 is the maximum. If you are in an ILE or MLE please see the next FAQ.

We understand that these types of environments still have a “basecamp” for a subset of the total number of students with a teacher or assistant associated with that group. We recommend that you set up each basecamp as a “team”. We also need a teacher or adult to act as a “team manager” for each team. If you need help with this, please just contact our support crew at support@healthiestschools.co.nz

Simply send them to our website www.youngandhealthy.org.nz and click the Register (or Waitlist) button.

When parents are involved with and helping their children, they are more successful, whether it be learning or practising healthy behaviours. So we have a few ways that parents can get involved and will help you to communicate with them once your class is registered.​

You will receive a weekly email to keep you informed of what is coming up next for you, including the destinations, players and health and wellbeing messages you could use in your class if you wanted to. ​ We'll also send you mini-challenges that you can win prizes for if you want to participate. You are able to contact the support crew by phone or email at any time if you need assistance.

We have listened to all your feedback about pedometers and it varies widely. So, whilst it makes it harder for us to organise and budget, we have decided to put the choice firmly in your hands. As students can earn points from other healthy habits and track activity time rather than steps, a pedometer is not necessary, but you have also told us that the pedometers are motivating and fun so we are giving you the choice of receiving a pedometer for each student, or a set of 10 per class to share or none at all. As we are also conscious of the impact of these wee pieces of motivation on our environment, we have found pedometers with long-life batteries that can be changed so they can be used again next year, if taken care of. Children from two different schools have tested the wristbands we have this year and they have been found to be robust and last well. Based on testing the sharing option with students have found the two most effective (and still fun and motivating) ways to use them are; 1. Groups of 5 If you have your class broken up into groups of 5 students, one student in each group can have a turn 1 day of each week to be the "pacesetter" for their group. They wear the pedometer for the day and their group uses those steps for their individual entries. 2. Have a dally pacesetter group You select a group of "pacesetter" students who wear pedometers for the day and the average of their steps is the step count that all the children enter for that day. Some teachers liked this for the maths element calculating the average steps each day.

Not specifically, but our program is built around the Sport NZ guidelines for children and young people as detailed below. If your class is achieving these guidelines you may complete all the initial legs of the vent and even unlock some bonus destinations! do 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. be active in as many ways as possible. be active with friends and whanau at home, school and in the community. spend less than two hours a day, out of school time, in front of a TV, computer or game console.

If you have a child participating, they will have a username and password provided to them by their teacher before the challenge starts. If they are unsure of their login, you can ask their Teacher who can look it up on their 'Manage Class' link. To access the Virtual Adventure website click the LOGIN link on the menu bar and enter your child's username and password. Once logged in you can then help them build their unique avatar so they are ready to go when the event commences. Then when the Virtual Adventure starts your child will track their steps and other healthy behaviours to help their class team move around the course and reach each destination. Please view the For Parents section of the website for how you and your child can get the most of out the event and join our mailing list, follow us on Instagram to receive updates. Please note if your child is not in the Zespri Young and Healthy Virtual Adventure at school but you would like them to be, email kim.harvey@youngandhealthy.org.nz to find out how to get your child's class involved.