Sports & Recreation

Sports education enhances fitness, mental resilience and social skills. A well-equipped sports setting can enhance engagement according to this contributor.

Australian students report high stress levels. This health researcher says yoga is an ideal way for schools to teach students how to identify and best manage stress.

Multi-purpose sports halls take some punishing traffic throughout the school year and require constant attention, and will underperform if maintenance is neglected.

​Raff Agostino, Social Media & Communications for School Sport Victoria gave School News an update on how the Victorian Teachers Games went this year in Ballarat. 

Every year, Victorian teachers leave their classrooms, playgrounds and school sports days behind and head to a Victoria regional location for their own carnival of fun, fitness, connection and learning.

Although many schools still struggle with funding to update sports grounds, there is a shift towards harnessing technology to develop ground coverings and large indoor spaces with flooring that is easy on the body, and incredibly versatile.

The myth that sport itself is ideally suited to help disadvantaged young people develop “socially” and “psychologically” has obscured the fact that it is the teamwork within sport that helps.

External learning used to mean things like swimming lessons at the local pool. Every week, we walked two abreast (holding hands with a partner) to the local oval for sport with Mr Fuller. He was always forthcoming with training tips and schedules for his favourite sports of touch football and cricket. We didn’t mind; we got ice blocks full of preservatives and colours on Wednesday afternoons in terms one and four, and we got to wear our coloured T-shirts with only bloomers. Those were the days.

Yoga has found its way into mainstream schooling and with good reason. Stacey Nelson of Yoga Palette has been teaching yoga at a private girls school in Brisbane for the past 10 years. She said “the teachers love it, the students love it, and I loves it!” Here are her words from out there in the field.

The environmental impact of the water usage involved in the upkeep of grass playing fields is considerable. As awareness increases, schools are embracing synthetic surfaces as an alternative. Many schools struggle with a shortage of suitable water provision, both in quantity and quality, to establish and maintain natural turf to a useable level over time.