Lytton Street School team leaving, on a jetplane

For one girl on the Lytton Street School Jump Jam team, her first plane flight will be tomorrow when the team heads to the National Jump Jam Aerobics competition in Auckland.

The team of seven girls from Feilding's Lytton Street School qualified first in the year two to year six open grade, and will be competing against six other New Zealand schools in the grade.

World aerobics champion Brett Fairweather has developed a Kidz Aerobix resource kit, called Jump Jam, to get children active and involved in exercise through aerobic dance routines.

Jump Jam is being taught in 1750 schools throughout New Zealand, and is designed specifically for primary and intermediate school students to be taught as part of a physical education curriculum.

ICT teacher and team coach Angela Lush said the routines were designed to get kids fit and involved.

She said it is especially exciting for Lytton, yet still very nerve-racking. "Lytton is a decile three school, so many of the kids don't get an opportunity to do big things like this, so fingers crossed we go well at the nationals."

She said the girls train twice a week at lunch time and have worked incredibly hard on the routine.

To enter the competition, schools must select one song from the Jump Jam DVDs, change one third of the routine and then send in a copy of the group doing the routine. From there, schools are selected for the national competition.

Lytton Street School deputy principal Faye Roberts said she is very excited about the national competition.

"We were in it last year, but I think we are better this year. The kids have really got it."

Palmerston North's College Street Normal School and Ross Intermediate School will also be competing in the national event, but in different grades.

The Jump Jam National Competition is being held tomorrow and on Saturday at the AUT Sport and Fitness Centre on Auckland's North Shore.

- © Fairfax NZ News