Sports activities contribute to the physical, mental, and emotional growth of a young child. Did you know that a child who is actively involved in sports activities performs better in school and is even healthier than a child who does not? Well, now, you know! Therefore, schools need to make sports mandatory in the school curriculum.
A parent’s role in ensuring sports are given a priority in schools is through enrolling their children in schools with a reputation for active sports participation. As a parent, as you choose a school for your child, consider the school’s academic performance and attitude towards sports activities.
Let’s Look at Why Sports is Important in School?
1. Sports Help Learners Stay Healthy
Physical exercise helps learners to lead a healthy lifestyle. Today, many lifestyle diseases such as obesity are on the rise due to the food consumed, especially junk food, and lack of physical exercise. By introducing sports in school curriculum, teachers reduce the risk of children contracting lifestyle diseases such as obesity. It also reduces the risk of learners suffering from high blood pressure as sports activities help reduce learners’ stress levels, thus staying healthy. Moreover, physical exercise helps strengthen learners’ muscles and bones, hence boosting body balance, especially in young children.
2. Sports Aid in Nurturing Learners Talents
Teachers at international and Indian high schools in Dubai, and parents are familiar with the fact that children are gifted differently. There are learners who excel in academic work; others excel in sports activities, while others can sing well among other unique gifts. Including sports in the curriculum helps learners to discover their inborn talents and to perfect their skills.
For instance, a child may discover that they are good at football. Through consistent sports activities and competition from fellow learners, they perfect their skills through guidance from well-trained coaches. The learner can even get a professional career like Hussein Bolt and Lionel Messi, to mention a few, from being involved in sports activities as early as when they are in high school.
3. Sports Contribute to Excellent Academic Performance
Regular exercise leads to an increase in the size of the hippocampus. Hippocampus is an area in the brain responsible for learning and memory. Its increase leads to increased brain power and boosts a learner’s cognitive abilities and ability to recall, translating to better performance.
Moreover, exercise increases blood and oxygen flow in the brain, stimulating brain cells’ growth, thus improving its functionality. The mind is the centre of all cognitive abilities; therefore, exercise gives it an enabling environment to perform as per expectations. An increase in the hippocampus’s size guarantees good memory and ability to learn hence excellent academic performance.
4. Sports Help Students to Relax
You already know that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. After spending long hours in the classroom and being mentally drained from the day’s learning, learners need an activity to take them off books for a while. And what better way to help students relax than involving them in a sports activity that exploits the physical and mental attributes of a child? Sports help a learner to forget academic stress, even just for a little while. By the time students go back to class to continue the regular class activities, they are relaxed and refreshed to keep on learning.
5. Sports Boost Social Skills
Sports create an enabling environment for student interactions. Through the exchanges, learners develop an ability to express themselves effectively, hence communication skills. In case of a dispute, for instance, in a football match, they calmly resolve the dispute to continue with the game, thus gaining problem-solving skills. They also learn how to accommodate each other’s differences for a match to continue, which is an excellent social attribute. Therefore, including sports in school curriculum ensures the development of social adults.
6. Boosts Learners’ Confidence
When a learner can successfully perform an extracurricular activity, for example, scoring a goal, they become confident in their abilities. They believe they can accomplish anything they set their mind to. The confidence is translated even in the classroom where learners become optimistic in producing good academic grades, thus striving to achieve them.
7. Promotes Teamwork
To have a successful game, learners need to work together to win. For instance, in a football match, a defender has to work together with a striker to ensure they score a goal and not lose a game to their opponents. Through sports, learners learn the importance of performing their role in a team to be successful. This enables them to be better team players even in academic groups and later in the future when employed in an organization.
8. Help Learners to be Good Time Managers
Most sports activities have a scheduled time in which a game ought to last. For instance, a football match lasts 90 minutes; therefore, players need to utilize the set time to win. The ability to play successfully in the set time helps learners to acquire time management skills.
The management skills gained in completing an exercise activity is translated even in studies. They learn to schedule their personal time and study time, and in doing so, they give their studies a priority hence good academic performance. Time management is a skill that goes a long way even in the students after school life.
9. Helps to Instill Discipline
Most sports activities have rules and regulations. To win a match, one needs to follow all the game rules and regulations. And this helps learners be disciplined even in out-of-the-game activities. They are challenged to follow all institutions’ rules and regulations, including schools or later in life in employment organizations.
10. Creates a Success Mindset
Learners engage in a sports activity with the sole aim of becoming winners, whether it is swimming or football, to mention a few. Therefore, learners develop a thirst for success in anything they set their minds to do. The mindset is evident even in improved academic performance.
11. Encourage Learners to be Hardworking
Winning in a sports activity requires putting in a lot of hard work and determination through consistent practice. Therefore, learners are exposed to the fact that nothing good comes easy. One needs to put in a lot of hard work to be successful, a lifelong lesson both in academics and real-life situations.
12. Equip Learners with Leadership Skills
Most sports activities have teams under the guidance of a team captain. A captain is typically a student with leadership skills identified by the coach. The captain improves their skill through sports activities, which may translate to acquiring excellent leadership attributes for prominent positions in the future.
13. Boosts Focus and Concentration
Some sports activities, such as chess, among others, require that a learner focus and concentrate on the game to win. Losing concentration even for a slight second in the match guarantees one to lose the game. Therefore, learners acquire the ability to focus on everything they set on doing, even in academics.
As a leading international school in Dubai, sports equip learners with essential attributes applicable in school and life after school. We recognise it and hence encourage parents to help their children participate in sports activities for the many benefits it brings.
