Why is sport important in education?
The positive effects of playing sport from a young age are not only physical. There are many benefits of participating in sport whilst at school and they will benefit many different areas of a child’s life, from a social aspect, performing better in the classroom and even mental health benefits. In this blog we’ve highlighted some of the biggest benefits for school-age children.
Being involved in team sports can have a hugely positive effect on a child’s social skills. They learn to work with children with whom perhaps they haven’t met before. Learning to have good social skills will benefit a child for the rest of their lives, throughout their school years and beyond they will put these skills to use.
In any sport, discipline is required and practising this from a young age will not only improve their skills on the court or on the pitch but also in the classroom. Learning to have respect for their coach, umpires and teammates can be put into practice at home and in the classroom. Practising the discipline of training and seeing the positive results of this can be carried across into having the discipline to study hard and succeed in exams.
Playing team sports will develop a child’s communication skills. Learning how to communicate with their team members will encourage better communication with parents and teachers. Being able to communicate and work as an effective team member will lead to success.
Building a child’s self-esteem can be a tricky task, but when involved in sports, a child will be praised on a range of things, from good sportsmanship to scoring the winning goal, or great defence against the opposing team. It is an environment where self-esteem can grow naturally.
Learning to be a humble winner and gracious loser is an important lesson to learn in life and something that without participating in events can be hard to teach. Failure and success are both experienced throughout life and getting comfortable with these emotions at a young age will make a for a confident and driven individual.
Sport at Duncombe School
Here at Duncombe School, we regard sport as one of the most important parts of our curriculum. If you are currently reviewing the educational options available for your child, you may have noticed that private independent schools often regard sport highly as part of their offering. We offer sport throughout the year as we have facilities that enable us to ensure that no matter the weather, our children can be active. Our children have made some great sporting achievements which we are very proud of.
We do, however, believe that matter what level of aptitude a child has for sport, there should be space for everyone, we encourage all students to participate and have fun. You can learn more about how we use sport to encourage and develop the children that attend Duncombe school here. Better still, come and pay us a visit to see for yourself what we have to offer