Physical Education in School

The last couple weeks I have been in Sydney I have been volunteering at the Newtown North Public School right next to Sydney University Campus. This week I got to observe a physical education class and it was much different than any class I have ever seen before. This week they were doing gymnastics and it amazed me how much the children seemed to enjoy it. They were participating in activities such as bars, balance beam, and doing handstands. I think if this happened at a gym class in the US there would be many complainers but here there were none! Every child was willing to participate and their skills were impressive. When speaking to the physical education teacher, he said that they work on a lot of different sports in physical education and that the gymnastics is used to develop the students overall skills. When talking to the kids at recess time, they all seemed to love sport. Almost every kid I talked to was on a swim team, and these were young kids! The importance of sports was very evident to me when I heard how enthusiastic these children were about sport.

Maroubra Beach Nippers

This Sunday we had our first field trip to Maroubra beach to watch the nippers. On the way there I got a $100 fine for using a student bus ticket because apparently study abroad students do not qualify for the discount. Needless to say, I was not the happiest person arriving to the beach. However, I had a great day and am very glad that I made it.

The nippers are children ages 5-12 years old who compete in beach patrol activities that include physical competitions such as running in the sand and water. When we were there on Sunday, the older kids were at a competition so only the nippers ages 5-8 were on the beach. The first competition we saw them do was they had to lay on their bellies in the sand and when the whistle blew the hopped up and had to run about fifteen meters and dive for a stick that was sticking out of the ground. The kids were organized by cap colors and they competed in different heats. After this event, the kids had to go down by the water and parents stood in the water to create a path for the children to run. It seemed like all of the children were putting a lot of effort into the activities but it did not seem like they were extremely competitive about it. Because it was only the young kids, there were no winners and it seemed like a laid back and fun environment.

After watching these events, we went into the beach clubhouse and one of the volunteers talked to us about what life is like at the club. I was very surprised to hear that it is all volunteer run but I thought this was really great. He explained to us that there is a very strong sense of community at the club and with the nippers not only are the kids learning safety and become stronger on the beach but the parents are also being educated about how to keep the kids safe. The sense of community was very obvious as I watched the parents cheer on all of the kids and even have fun with other parents. Overall, it was a really great trip and a lot of fun to watch the nippers.

Welcome to my adventure!

My name is Kelly and I am currently studying abroad for the semester in Sydney, Australia. As an elective, I am taking a course called "Sport and Learning in Australian Culture" and I will be using this blog to share my experiences with Australian sports. Being a big sports fan at home, I am very excited to attend sporting events in Australia and compare them to my experiences with sports back in the US.