Is+Sport+Enough?

IS SPORT ENOUGH? Bellaire Primary School has an annual ‘Fun Run’ and ‘Athletics Carnival’ that the students compete in individually and in Houses. The students enjoy competing with their friends and love it when their house takes out victory. No house has beaten Landy (blue house) or Strickland (yellow house) since 1999, so adding more house events has been on people’s minds. Year five student Mackenzie H says that house events are great fun and it is fantastic because no one gets too competitive. “It’s all just jokes,” he stated. This sports ‘fanatic’ suspects that everyone would enjoy house events and thinks that bringing in Academic events will just boost the excitement of house events. With the students competing in houses – Landy, Strickland, Cuthbert and Elliot – they try there hardest to impress their fellow competitors and house captains. Some students prefer to concentrate on the independent side of the events and making it into the District level. Elliot House Captain, Zachariah S agrees to adding Academic style events. “It’s all running and I know Elliot has some people who are great at Art and Maths. Elliot aren’t as good (as Landy and Strickland) in sport and it will be closer and more fair if there were different style events.” Year five student Lachlan B dislikes house events and says that they take up work time and you can easily fall over and get hurt. “I always fall over and I graze my knees and stuff. Then I get puffed out and that is just not fun!” He stated that he would only enjoy academic style events and he also believed that house events are already too competitive, and that more events means there would be breaking up of friendships. With the events taking up work time, Lachlan deems that having more events wouldn’t help students with their work, as they are missing valuable class time. “Students will struggle in class, as they are missing out on education doing house sports. Unless we make it a House Event Week it will be a muddle for students and teachers.” With a wide variety of events that could be developed – Debating, Art, Maths, Science, Drama, Spelling Bee, Music and a Sports Day – a big decision is to be made. As this involves many people from the school community, including Parent Helpers and Teachers, it will take a lot of discussing to determine the verdict. Isaac H SW