Queen sang Radio Gaga. Lady Gaga sings about love.

But this year I’ve watched a generation of kids fall in love with the game of Gaga.

I’d never heard of it until I saw a large wooden octagon taking shape in one corner of the school oval. Walls half a metre high, surrounding a concrete slab. Add children, a bouncy ball and you’ve got a Gaga pit.

Gaga is basically dodgeball in a tiny space. It originated in Israel and “Ga” is Hebrew for touch.

Any number of kids climb into the pit – doesn’t matter if it’s four or forty. The ball is thrown in the air to start and then kids whack it and try to hit each other below the knee. You’re out if you get hit and the last kid standing wins. Simple. Dodge, run, jump, slide, giggle – any age child can play and it has become the game that’ll define 2022 for this group of primary schoolers.

The kids are obsessed. They have gone gaga for Gaga.

Like handball or elastics for me as a tween, the Gaga pit is full every lunchtime and after school.

Apparently it became a thing at summer camps in the 1970s and spread around the world.

My own school camp experience was more about team trust exercises and singalongs. I did do Outward Bound one year which involved trekking up a mountain with a pack so heavy I fell down an embankment like a flipped turtle. I recall not showering for a week, attempting very shaky abseiling and mastering the bush loo. I hated it all but it remains one of the best experiences of my life.

Not sure if Gaga will shape these kids in the same way – but the pit is full of life lessons.

I love standing around the octagon to watch and listen to the kids battle it out. They’re like a little microcosm of society. Big, coordinated kids sometimes get tripped up by lucky little guys who sneak in a shot that bounces in a surprising way. Sometimes the older kids will purposely protect the younger kids so that they can stay in longer. So sweet and a generous approach to competition. They’ll chant in support of players making strong shots and howl objections at anyone who claims “above the knee” when clearly it wasn’t. The kneecap line can be tricky.

There’s one particular lad who’s very good. He’s faster, more accurate with hits and can jump higher than all the kids. And he’s got such a sweet nature. He’s not so strong academically and he’s conscious of that at this time of year as final school results arrive. I want to tell him how clever and kind he is in so many ways that his report card doesn’t necessarily show.

The skill it takes to play smart and fair when you’re 10, is a real sign of the kind of person you’ll grow to be. You see it in adults all the time. The one who can’t lose well or the person who cuts corners and talks dirty about fellow players is not the one you want on your team. I guess we all have our good, bad and better days in the pit of life.

Marbles is the other game that came and went every year with waves of popularity when I was a kid. Comets and cats eyes were lugged around as precious weapons. In the dirt we’d play once, twice and away. I’ve probably still got a bag of glass speckles in a cupboard somewhere.

As we roll into the end of the year, I hope you’re having some wins in the game of life. Some days you lose your marbles and other days you go gaga but that can be surprisingly good fun.