School sports days offer the perfect opportunity to highlight the importance of teamwork and participation, even if some of the events are a little outside the comfort zones of some of your children.
20th June 2024
You can use the occasion to encourage everyone to get involved and feel enthusiastic about sporting activities, even those who may not feel athletically inclined, while showcasing the mental and physical health benefits of being active. A sports day can spark interest which children take up and follow long after the day itself is over.
If you already have an outdoor gym at your school, you’ll already be aware of the many advantages of having this facility. But one additional benefit you may not have considered is the part it can play on sports day. Here’s how you could use it:
1. Warming up
Use your outdoor gym as a dedicated warm-up point before children take part in races and other events. And since it’s a separate area to the main field, it could be a stage everyone has to pass through before they can compete, to ensure every pupil has warmed up properly. The equipment is ideal for stretching thoroughly, along with various other gentle exercises, to get the muscles nice and warm.
2. Introduce a little competition
Sports days are a great chance for kids to learn about healthy sporting competition and may be their first experience of winning and losing. You could extend an element of competition to your al fresco equipment and get pupils to see, for example, who can do most swings on the Air Skier in 60 seconds as part of your sports day events.
You can use almost every piece of equipment in an outside gym competitively in some way.
3. Involve the parents
Sports day is usually a public occasion, and perhaps one of few opportunities, where parents, staff and children can come together around a sporting event. If the outdoor equipment is suitable then parents could compete against each other on the monkey bars, in a fresh take on the standard parents’ egg-and-spoon or dads’ three-legged race. Pupils will love to see their mums and dads getting stuck in, and feel encouraged to use the outdoor gym equipment themselves.
For their part, parents will enjoy having the chance to see the space and have a go on some of the equipment.
4. A separate space
For children with SEND, sports day can be a very challenging day. The change in routine, the noise, unfamiliar faces as parents and carers attend to support their children. The outdoor gym could be used as a place of reflection and calm for those who need time away from the hustle and bustle to compose themselves. The familiarity of the equipment, the gentle motion of the movement will offer them a familiar haven, helping to find calm and prepare for other activities.
Fresh Air Fitness
We can help with your next sports day. Fresh Air Fitness has one of the UK’s biggest ranges of outdoor gym equipment for children. So we’re ideally placed to work with your school on funding, design, delivery and installation of your open-air workout facility. Let us manage the whole project , from planning the perfect outdoor playground gym, through to completion and beyond.
Make our varied, top-quality kit a focal point of your next school sports event – take the first step by giving us a calltoday. We’ll take it from there.
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