Active Little Learners Charitable Trust

Active Little Learners Charitable Trust was established in early March 2022, by Anita McLaren (nee Punt), a talented sportswoman who has represented NZ, and Anthony Denissen, an experienced sports coach. 

Anita and Anthony are both passionate about sport and believe that it's important for tamariki to establish fundamental movement skills in the early years. Through this charitable trust, they want to ensure that their expertise and resources are available to ALL families in the community.

Active Little Learners aims to establish life-long healthy habits. Tamariki and their whanau will benefit in many ways: Improved co-ordination, greater resilience, developing social skills and growing self-confidence.

Statistics

It's early days, but we currently bring the Active Little Learners programme to over 300 children, aged between 2 - 5 years, across Nelson and Richmond. 

Co - Founders

Anthony Denissen

Co-Founder and Board Member

Anthony has over 25 years experience in sports coaching and management in New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and England.

  • Director of Sport, Ashton College
  • Sports Manager and Director of Hockey, Westville Boys High
  • Youth Development Officer, Hockey Southland, New Zealand

Email anthony@activelittlepeople.org.nz

Anita McLaren (née Punt)

Anita is a former New Zealand hockey player with over 270 caps

  • 2 x Olympian
  • 3 x Commonwealth Games
  • 2018 Nelson Sports Women and Person of the year
  • 5+ years experience in sports coordinating

 

Facilitator 

Cherie Llewellin

Kia ora, I'm Cherie. I'm so excited to be apart of the team at Active Little Learners.

I recently graduated with a Diploma in Sport and Recreation from NMIT.

I love getting to know your tamariki. I am passionate about them giving things a go and praising effort not achievement.

When I am not teaching sport in ECE I also work for Richmond Football Club, and run the amazing girls only Fantails program in Nelson. I can usually be found on Saturdays on the side of a football field with a coffee in hand.

I am a māmā to 3 amazing children; Declan, Poppy and Flynn. My husband is Bryan and we live in Richmond with our crazy Jack Russell. In my spare time I love camping with my family somewhere near a beach.

Come say hi if you see me around, I love a chat and would love to meet you.

Board Members

Lee Corlett

Having spent 20 years in the Military at a Physical training Instructor, and 25 years as a sports coach covering gymnastics, athletics and BMX, Lee had a passion for children’s physical activity. Lee founded Kindy Sport Nelson in 2000 and delivered activity programmes to kindergartens, pre-schools and the community for 18 years. In that time, Lee averaged working with 600 children every week from Hokitika, across the Top of the South and Wanganui. Lee is still involved with working with children with his work at Broadgreen Intermediate and Athletics Nelson.
 

Luke Swart

A businessman, currently owning and operating a Jim’s Dog Wash Franchise in Nelson. Being a qualified professional accountant and financial advisor, Luke has worked in many finance and insurance roles over the last 20 years. Luke has previous experience working with Charitable Trusts, from the application of funds through to reporting on charitable donations. Luke truly enjoy's working with the youth and is passionate to assist in the development of Active Little Learners.