by Jeff Seabrook
Firstly, I would like to thank you for the articles in the Oct. 31 edition of Yellowknifer (“Five banners is impressive but it is no fluke" and "Another near-sweep for Wildcats").
It is always nice to see the successes of our student athletes highlighted in the local paper.
I do believe, however, there was a very big piece missing that would have made this less a story about good athletes and having the largest pool of students to choose from and more about inclusion and increasing youth physical activity.
Statistics Canada filed a report on physical activity and youth with research from 2007-2015 titled Physical Activity of Canadian Children and Youth 2007-2015. This report was meant to be a study of youth activity and how it compares to the recommended number of minutes of physical activity per day. Interestingly, in 2011, only seven per cent of youth met the standard of 60 minutes of vigorous activity per day. Preschoolers, however, were at 73 per cent. So the question is: what are we doing between preschool and 17 years of age that causes this to decline so much?
The 11-to-17 age category shows a marked decline in activity while the 6-to-11 category shows consistently close to the average. In recent years, these numbers have begun to increase with almost 50 per cent of students getting the average of at least 3 or more days per week.
Ecole William McDonald Middle School recognized this trend more than a decade ago and started to implement changes to programming that increased student participation in physical activity.
The introduction of an 'everyone can play' philosophy took many years of consistent efforts to change a culture that all students can participate. We have students with a variety of skills playing with each other in an inclusive positive setting. We have gone from having one team at each grade level to having two, three and, on occasion, four teams all because we believe the banner is not the end goal at the school.
We win when we have more students engaged in a healthy lifestyle. These banners are but a really small piece of what we believe is important for our students.
We have supported four phys-ed classes per week in the school for many years now with the belief that a healthy body makes for a healthy mind and a mind ready to learn. We built an alternative space for physical activity that is not a traditional phys-ed class, a space which has treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes and floor space. This allows for an equal playing field for all students. There are no "better" students when you walk on a treadmill, pedal a bike or stretch on a mat. This has helped shape the environment of inclusiveness, trust, and fairness. Some other schools have now done this at the lower grades.
We know from experience that having a morning wake-up routine – all students at our school participate in physical activity for 20 minutes prior to class starting everyday – helps students concentrate and perform better in the classroom in the mornings. Behaviours from students decreased significantly with the introduction of these 'wake-ups'. This, too, has gained support in other schools and has helped our students continue to be more active.
Our Wildcats Academy was developed as a way to support academics and a means to keep students motivated to learn. Our academies have changed over the years with speedskating, figure skating, dancing, hockey, futsal and athletics all being a part of our offerings. The one thing that remains consistent is the development of physical literacy. Our sport-specific training is only a six-week block. The six weeks following is in the fitness room learning how to train properly and to become physically literate. We do this twice during the whole year and it ends prior to the March Break.
We accept all levels of students into our academy programs; this is not an elite program to train the best. Hockey, soccer, gymnastics, speedskating, basketball, and volleyball all have high-performance training programs outside the school. While we compliment these programs, our real goal is to share and teach our students to be physically literate and gain a love of being active.
Our feeder school teachers at N.J. Macpherson and J.H. Sissons Schools have done an excellent job at supporting a district vision of physical literacy. Students come to our school ready to try new things that have been encouraged by the teachers before us.
Nationally, we still have a ways to go. According to Statistics Canada, it finds only 14 per cent of youth get only 14 minutes of physical activity time after school. This was highlighted in a cover story in 2011 titled Active Healthy Kids: Canada’s report card on physical activity for children and youth. These are not encouraging numbers.
Here at Ecole William McDonald Middle School, we are trying to do our part to change these numbers and in doing so, have created a culture that does not place the emphasis on winning but being the best you can be and reaching your maximum potential during the time you are here.
The banners are just the icing on the cake.