By Suhani Gehlot
Sports day is the time of year which students passionately work towards or dread. It is a reminder of what an athletic student can use to feel better about themselves when they can’t work or what others can use to remind themselves of why they need to work better (those
grades are the only redeeming factor left).
However, most of the time it’s just about having fun doing the activities, racing against your friends and cheering for the teacher races which are the most amusing and surprising.
As most of the older students would remember, Sports day always felt limited to the athletics portion as it was always held in the Sports City stadium and included activities such shotput, javelin, high jump and others. But this year, the sports department finally heard us students and changed it to the more engaging team sports such as football and netball for boys and girls respectively (the year 12s netball was mixed though) while still retaining the more entertaining mixed dodgeball and active zone.
This special change warrants an outlook at the importance of sports day in our school and why teachers think it is so important that even the Y12s should participate this year. In a special interview with Mr. Walby from the Sports department he answers questions to help us understand the importance of WSO’s Sports day. I asked about the main reasons why WSO takes sports day so seriously to which he answered about the usefulness of Sports day in encouraging cohesion and unity as a team while also nurturing bonds in houses regardless of age as well as the fun elements of watching staff such as Heads of Houses and other teachers race each other or participate in silly activities solidifying the bonds between the school, year groups and houses. He also lists ‘invaluable life skills’ students gain such as teamwork, togetherness, hard work, success. When asked about the process behind choosing the sports for this round of sports day Mr. Walby answered ‘We had a team meeting to discuss what we thought the students would like to compete in and wanted a combination of team events, fun events and skill.’ This showcases the amount of thought and care for students is put behind these events. The interview was concluded with any achievements Mr. Walby wanted to acknowledge from this year’s run where he mentioned the effort put by the teachers to ensure the days ran smoothly as well as the commitment shown by students. He especially enjoyed the ‘camaraderie and spirit shown from all the houses’ and then cheered for Ruby.
Then he must be glad to know the results as Diamond won first place but by only one point with Ruby as the runner-up, giving a tough fight. The third place went to Onyx and the in last place is Emerald. These are the main results accumulated from the results of all the year groups. However some of the results from different year groups have also been collected, here are some below.
Looking at these results it shows that Ruby’s placement should be accredited mostly to the younger years as once again they have carried Ruby just as they do in assemblies with their enthusiasm. As an ending note I would like to thank the whole sports department for organizing such a fun week of activities and being flexible enough to reschedule some sports day due to the conflict with international day, thank you for your efforts.
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