Junior Sport
Week 2
Week 2 of Remote Learning on the back of the school holidays certainly does feel like where we were last year. In a perfect world this week would have been the final training session for our Junior School Athletics team before heading off to HICES Athletics next week. Our girls AFL would have been preparing for their first competitive match this week.
Interschool sport and club sport in Australia has been cancelled for now, but that doesn’t mean students need to miss out on what is a vital component of their life. Sport Australia acting chief executive Rob Dalton remarks:
“It’s a tough time for sport, but helping our kids to stay active – and being active ourselves – is just as important as ever,” says.
How much physical activity do children need each day?
Australian physical activity guidelines recommend children aged 5 to 12 get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day. “Sport and physical activity can contribute to making kids happier, healthier, more resilient and socially engaged,” says Rob. “There are numerous studies to show it can also impact positively on their other learning skills, including their academic education.” Byron Dodds, of multi-sport program Ready Steady Go Kids, of which quite a few Redlands students have taken part in in their younger years, says sport helps kids develop their gross and fine motor skills, as well as social abilities such as resilience.
Why exercise is crucial in a world changed by coronavirus
Rob says staying active can be particularly therapeutic amid the uncertainty right now. “Sport and active games can provide an important balance, physically and mentally, for you and your children,” he says. Byron says physical activity helps the brain cope better with stress and anxiety. “So making sure daily exercise comes into your routine in the current health crisis is crucial,” he says.
How parents can step up for their kids
Research shows eight in 10 kids don’t get the recommended hour of physical activity a day – but 77 per cent of children with an active parent are active themselves, says Rob. “You can be their most important sporting role model,” he says. Byron says now is the perfect opportunity for parents to get out and play with their kids. “Shoot hoops with them, bowl them a cricket ball, kick the footy, learn a dance with them, practise those gymnastic or acrobatic tricks and do some strengthening,” he says.
Get creative in your own backyard
Make it easy and enticing “Encourage them outside, put some sporting equipment where they will see and use it,” says Rob. Get on board some wheels. “Get the kids out and about riding their bikes or scooters or using their skateboards/rollerblades in the driveway or up and down the road,” Byron says.
Turn your backyard into a sporting venue “Set up a game of backyard cricket, play basketball, frisbee, throw and catch, jump on the trampoline, play piggy in the middle, kick a ball, chase bubbles, pull out the balls, bats, hula hoops, yoga or Pilates mats,” says Byron.
Mix it up and think outside the square. “Use balloons for balloon volleyball, tennis or soccer,” Byron says. “Or build some obstacle courses the kids can do indoors or outdoors with household items to get them to crawl over and under things. “Or have races in the backyard – relay races such as jumping, hopping, frog jumps, running backwards, walking sideways, or use a pillowslip and do sack races.”
Our Junior School students have been fortunate to have Wednesday sport still timetabled into their Remote Learning schedule. The sport captains and house captains have been very busy creating and producing a weekly age-appropriate fitness routine for all the Junior School to complete during this time. While the links for these have been uploaded to your child’s Google Classroom they can also be found here.
In the coming days you will receive a notification containing links to longer workouts including sport specific skills sessions that have been put together by the sport department. Previously these have been ‘live’ in nature with students asked to participate via Zoom on the Saturday morning but given the nature of the current restrictions these will be sent pre-recorded which will enable you and your child to complete these at another time if Saturday morning is not convenient.
It might be stormy now but rain doesn’t last forever.
Mr Trevor Dunne
Head of Junior Sport
tdunne@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9953 6022