Sport - yes or no?
By Yazid Achary-Khan
Over my time doing sport at Uni High, it wasn’t really that great. It was a nice break from sitting in our chairs all week, but most of the time, we played volleyball and some weird distortion of netball every week, not to mention having to run the dreaded beep test twice a year. I had to know though, was the PE curriculum not enjoyable for just me, or was there an actual problem with the way in which we did sport at Uni High? Is the Uni High curriculum enjoyable, does it foster good health habits in students, and is as good as it could be?
First, we should find out public opinion. In a survey run by me, I found out what other year 10 students think. Almost 60% of respondents said they did not enjoy sports. 30% of people believed that interschool sport was underfunded and not given sufficient attention, while another 30% believed that interschool sport received enough attention. 40% of respondents simply answered ‘unsure’. When asked if they felt sport was funded well enough, an overwhelming 60% answered ‘neutral’. 16% of respondents felt that we were underfunded. Some mixed answers from the public there, but we can see that, generally, PE isn’t extremely loved. It is important to note that this form was completed by members of the year 10 WEP class, as well as some of my friends. The results may have been different had we surveyed a different group of people.
We can see that people did not love sports, but is Uni High actually breaking any rules? I checked out the official curriculum for Victoria to find out. Between years 7-10, a minimum 100 hours of physical activity should be carried out by the school. Two sessions a week adds up to ~120 minutes of PE a week, so we seem to be doing fine there. Overall, the requirements I was able to find did not have much substance, they outline the general aims the sport curriculum has (teaching about movement, encouraging students to be healthy, ect.). There is a chance I may have missed a certain piece of information from one of the tons of government websites, but Uni High meets all the criteria outlined by all the sites I could find. So where are we going wrong? Why did ~60% of people dislike sport?
Lastly, We’re going to go over how we could improve. Starting off, let’s go back to our survey. I asked those who took it what they would add or remove from our classes. 30% of people simply said “i dunno” and moved on, but I did get some helpful responses. 30% of people talked about some level of student choice in what we did. Making sport less about us doing a game we are supposed to do, and instead choosing what we want to participate in. 22% of those surveyed said more out of school excursions rather than spending all our time on the oval or in the gym.
Moving on, I found an interesting document from VicHealth. In it, they give some suggestions for making a more active school. One of these suggestions recommended was for student-led classes, an idea we have already seen given from the survey. The document also suggests sharing facilities with the local community to try to strengthen the bond between the students and those in the area.
To wrap up, nearly ⅔ of the students surveyed felt they did not agree with the statement “I find the sports curriculum at Uni High enjoyable”. Most students seemed quite unopinionated when it came to interschool sports and funding. Uni High meets all guidelines set out in regards to PE at schools, and teaches appropriate material as well. When we think about what could make PE better, both those students surveyed and VicHealth suggested more student involvement. Another idea would be to work closer with the local community to have access to more equipment and to build stronger bonds between the school and the community at large. Hopefully with some change, we won’t have to play netball with a rubber chicken and a bucket for a goal anymore.