Educating with an Emphasis on Wellness
How do extracurricular activities and intramurals play a role in a healthy and active school culture?
Let's Play!
Intramurals and Extracurricular activities are similar in that they are an opportunity for sports, games, or physical activity within a school context but not within instructional time. However, they can be very different, often with different end goals ie. extracurriculars are often more sport specific, with an emphasis on skill development, practice, and competitive games (reference?), contrarily intramurals are generally more recreation and cooperation focused, with an emphasis on being active and having fun...(that isn't to say intramurals can't be team sports, or even get a bit competitive from time to time).
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The availability of intramurals and extracurricular activities can play a large role in overall youth physical activity. Participaction (2018) gives the grade of a B in Organized Sport Participation for Canadian Youth. This our best grade of the physical activity related Daily Behaviours in the Participaction Report Card. I linked Ogranized Sports to extracurricular activites which can help foster a school culture around wellness, community, and team spirit. It can also provide valuable lessons to those involved including teamwork, cooperation, how to rise to a challenge, how to fail and come back stronger, communication, and dedication. As positive as this is, it is important to acknowledge that organized sport is an extracurricular activity that is not available to all Canadian youth (for a variety of reasons(reference). Therefore, it is important for schools to offer intramural programs for those that are unable or uninterested in extracurricular activities.
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Intramurals! I have personally participated in, helped organize, and witnessed intramurals in many different ways. The format of the intramural program may differ due to school size, age of students, availability of space and equipments, and teacher supervision availability. In my university experience, intramurals were still organized by registration and specified teams. Throughout my middle school and high school years every student and staff member in the school was on one of three groups (think like the houses in Harry Potter); during lunch hour there would different activities for different houses, and sometimes we would have tournaments or challenges where the groups would compete with one another. This fostered a sense of community, and even if you did not often participate in the events, the school culture was brought together by cheering for your group, and getting involved in other ways such as making signs.
A Calgary Board of Education Middle School offers a variety of intramural programs on a drop-in basis the hour before school, during lunch hour AND afterschool. They have a rotating schedule to manage the large number of students at their school, but just think about all of that extra PE time! A Calgary Board of Education K-3 school has staff led active clubs at lunch which helps the students build community, develop their skill set or discover a new passion
Inquiry going Forward
How do teachers, and through extension school boards, allocate resources (time, money, etc.) to be able to incorporate intramurals and extracurricular activities in their schools?
Resources and References
ParticipACTION Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
This report card gives a very comprehensive look at physical activity levels for Canadian Youth. As Educators there are many school specific areas we can focus on to make sure we are doing all we can to help our youth get, and stay, active.Â
This page has a LOT of valuable information so go check it out!
No Cuts for School Sports
Blog Post by Ever Active Schools about a potential program to make school sports more accessible to all students.
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Check out the rest of the Ever Active website for more information on Physical Activity and other elements of Comprehensive School Health.
AMA Youth Run Club
Not every 'after-school' activity or extracurricular has to be team sport related. For a great example check out this After School Run Club!
ReBOOT Intramurals Toolkit for Leaders
A document providing information about a 9 Step Program to implement revamped intramurals in your school. This guide provides suggestions for 'out-of-the-box activities' and ways to give students voice and choice in the intramurals provided.
Less competition +Â more fun = physical activity for everyone
A document about using intramurals to allow daily physical activity for everyone. This blog post contains a link to information on their new 4-step intramural program: Raise the Bar. Check out their new website through this blog post!
The Importance of intramurals or Sports Fest in Schools
This blog post gives a list of 9 reasons why intramurals are important to incorporate into your school. This list reinforces points from the above resources, and some that came up in my interviews: "intramurals provide a healthy pastime to help students refrain from various vices such as drugs, smoking, drinking, and spending excessive time on electronic devices". Take a look at the other 8 reasons!