EDUCATION
WORDS BY CHARLOTTE PHILLIPS There are lessons to be learnt in sports that can’t be taught at a desk. Schools are now doing their best to open up these opportunities to all pupils I f you were offered a simple way of
At St Faith’s, the emphasis is on making physical education as appealing and varied as possible to all students – not just the sportiest of the bunch. “We’re trying to go down a route that offers enough sports so every pupil can find something they will love and enjoy for a lifetime,” explains director of sports John Welch. “We’re ensuring the traditional sports still have a strong platform, but we also understand that there’s such a wide variety of sports out there that the children should have access to and experiment with – so we’ve gone for a very wide breadth of curriculum which has over 20 sports on it.”
This inclusive approach certainly seems to be having the desired impact in terms of instilling a love of exercise in St Faith’s students: a recent survey of school leavers found that 75-80% of pupils had said PE was their favourite subject during their time at the school. Schools in our area are in no doubt about the impact sport can have, well beyond the obvious fitness benefits. “There have been lots of studies over the years which show sport provides a time and place to let off steam and develop skills that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to in the classroom,” says Josh Evans, subject lead for PE at Stoke College.
ensuring that your children were likely to be happier, healthier, live to a ripe old age and acquire great communication and leadership skills, naturally, you’d leap at the chance. The name of this magic ingredient? Sport. The wider benefits of sport are something that schools in our area completely understand. They have been giving their approach to physical fitness an intensive workout to make certain the way it’s structured, timetabled and presented is carefully calculated to draw pupils in and spark an interest that will hopefully last a lifetime.
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK JUNE 2023 59
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