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  • One sports day a year simply isn't enough!

    Thursday 7 July 2011

    Categories: Education, Extra curricular, Health

    Sports days are as much a part of summer as barbecues and beaching. There is a quintessentially British feel about pupils competing against each other in a variety of sporting challenges whilst relatives watch beside the track, making polite conversation and cheering their support (while sometimes dodging the rain showers).

    Parents naturally want their child to win but, as the old adage goes, it’s the taking part that counts. Young people have different talents and whilst some have the long legs and build to sprint quickly to a finishing line, others are better at throwing a javelin or even jumping up and down in a sack.

    Sports days are undoubtedly a great way of encouraging pupils to take part in physical exercise and, most important of all, enjoying it. It shouldn’t end there, though. One communal outing per year to a sports field simply isn’t enough to sustain a lifelong interest in keeping fit and healthy. Schools need to do a lot more than that to change attitudes and make a real difference to young people’s lives.

    We all know that obesity is on the rise and that televisions, computers, ipods and all the rest of the technological wizardry available today have, to some extent, replaced physical exercise as the leisure activity of choice. Many children are driven to school instead of walking there and, thanks to our target and league-driven society, more importance is attached to classroom lessons than those that take place outdoors or in a gym.

    I would argue, however, that PE should be just as much a priority in schools as more cerebral activity. Our children should grow up appreciating the many benefits of exercise, understanding that if you have a healthy body you are far more likely to have a healthy mind.

    I know how reluctant girls, in particular, can be when it comes to donning sports kit. Research carried out by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation has found that young women between the ages of 16 and 24 are half as active as young men, that 40% of girls feel self conscious about their bodies in PE lessons and that those lessons put as many as 25% of women off sport for life.

    That is why schools should work hard to ensure that physical activity is seen as both essential and enjoyable. Our girls should be encouraged to try out a wide range of sports – for example trampolining, volleyball and fencing, dance classes and yoga. In my view, far from detracting from academic study, sport improves the ability to learn. It also helps build self-esteem and self-confidence, develops an individual’s attention span, helps with time-management and encourages aspiration. What we really want is to develop a lifelong appreciation of exercise that equates physical effort with enjoyment and fun.

    Sports days are a wonderful occasion. A real opportunity to play the proud mum or dad and encourage offspring from the sidelines.

    That shouldn’t be the end of it though. We should be encouraging parents to applaud their children’s efforts and stay interested in their progress. We should be making sure they know what physical activities are taking place each week in school – even during the winter months – and involving them as much as possible in a shared appreciation of exercise and its benefits.

    Every parent wants the best for their child and every school should want the best for its pupils.
    In my view, there is nothing more important than physical fitness and health.

    Posted by Caroline Pascoe

Your comments

In the state sector, esp innner city/impoverished areas, you are as likely to see fencing/volleyball et al being taught for free as you are William’s & Kate’s children going to an innner London comp…. My daughter is pretty useless at school prescribed sports, and the girls in teams treated as mini goddesses. What I think schools could do, is not just focus on doing actual sport itself, but stimulate where they are not so interested, teach those pupils sports’ tactics, rules, how to referee, etc and I think that might be useful in stimulating their interest and perhaps make them enjoy partaking.

By djennied on Sunday 10 July 2011

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