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Giving students a sporting chance
By Sam Riley |
January 26, 2011, Wednesday
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INTERNATIONAL school sports programs in Shanghai have come a long way in a decade from only a handful of pioneering teachers to more than 1,200 children across 19 schools playing a number of different sports throughout the year.
From badminton to basketball, tennis to track, Shanghai's middle school and high school students compete in more than 10 different sports. The first inter-school sports competition kicked off in 2000 with the launch of the China International School's Sports Association (CISSA).
One of the founders of the interschool sporting league, Concordia International School Shanghai Assistant High School Principal Patrick Frerking, says the association and its high school equivalent Shanghai International Schools Activities Conference (SISAC) has grown along with the increase in international schools.
Frerking, who is also the school's athletic director, and his wife Sue have been at Concordia since it was founded in 1998. The school was one of three in the city at the time and had only 22 students. It now has more than 1,200 students.
Eighteen schools in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai are involved in the SISAC.
The most popular sports are volleyball, basketball and soccer.
A basketball tournament involving more than 55 teams across four divisions was recently held.
Frerking says one of the main aims of international schools is to build well-rounded individuals, who can make a positive contribution to society as adults.
By playing sports they learn about team work, achieving success, dealing with failure and the importance of fair competition and sportsmanship, he added.
While the middle school leagues focus on participation, the high school sports conference has a more competitive approach but also includes a range of non-sporting activities such as public speaking, debating and drama.
For many students, extracurricular activities are an important part of securing a place at a university of their choice.
"If someone deciding on college entrance gets three applications all with the same grades and they have one with no extracurricular activities, one with sports and another with both sports and maybe fine arts or drama they will choose this application because they know that person will be a good overall contributor to the university," he says.
The Frerkings are in their final school year in Shanghai and plan to move to Vietnam later in the year to launch a new Concordia school in Hanoi.
During his time in Shanghai, Frerking has taught a number of subjects from mathematics to physical education.
He currently runs the activities and athletic programs at the school and he says the school is proud of the number of ways it puts back into the community through a range of programs.
During his time at the school, students have been involved in a number of community projects from teaching English to other children, building six schools in rural areas and providing clean drinking water to villages.
The school has a number of partnerships with other organizations, including students working to build homes for the poor with Habitat for Humanity.
Frerking says it is important that the decision makers of tomorrow understand a greater concept of China than what they may experience in their day-to-day lives as foreigners in Shanghai.
"Many of our students will be the leaders of tomorrow and when they are looking at that balance sheet and making decisions, we want them to understand how their decisions will affect families and impact people," he says.
From badminton to basketball, tennis to track, Shanghai's middle school and high school students compete in more than 10 different sports. The first inter-school sports competition kicked off in 2000 with the launch of the China International School's Sports Association (CISSA).
One of the founders of the interschool sporting league, Concordia International School Shanghai Assistant High School Principal Patrick Frerking, says the association and its high school equivalent Shanghai International Schools Activities Conference (SISAC) has grown along with the increase in international schools.
Frerking, who is also the school's athletic director, and his wife Sue have been at Concordia since it was founded in 1998. The school was one of three in the city at the time and had only 22 students. It now has more than 1,200 students.
Eighteen schools in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai are involved in the SISAC.
The most popular sports are volleyball, basketball and soccer.
A basketball tournament involving more than 55 teams across four divisions was recently held.
Frerking says one of the main aims of international schools is to build well-rounded individuals, who can make a positive contribution to society as adults.
By playing sports they learn about team work, achieving success, dealing with failure and the importance of fair competition and sportsmanship, he added.
While the middle school leagues focus on participation, the high school sports conference has a more competitive approach but also includes a range of non-sporting activities such as public speaking, debating and drama.
For many students, extracurricular activities are an important part of securing a place at a university of their choice.
"If someone deciding on college entrance gets three applications all with the same grades and they have one with no extracurricular activities, one with sports and another with both sports and maybe fine arts or drama they will choose this application because they know that person will be a good overall contributor to the university," he says.
The Frerkings are in their final school year in Shanghai and plan to move to Vietnam later in the year to launch a new Concordia school in Hanoi.
During his time in Shanghai, Frerking has taught a number of subjects from mathematics to physical education.
He currently runs the activities and athletic programs at the school and he says the school is proud of the number of ways it puts back into the community through a range of programs.
During his time at the school, students have been involved in a number of community projects from teaching English to other children, building six schools in rural areas and providing clean drinking water to villages.
The school has a number of partnerships with other organizations, including students working to build homes for the poor with Habitat for Humanity.
Frerking says it is important that the decision makers of tomorrow understand a greater concept of China than what they may experience in their day-to-day lives as foreigners in Shanghai.
"Many of our students will be the leaders of tomorrow and when they are looking at that balance sheet and making decisions, we want them to understand how their decisions will affect families and impact people," he says.
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