School sports week

With summer slowly starting to appear, school fields across the country will be hosting sports days over the coming month.

It’s National School Sport Week from 20-26th June and the theme this year is belonging. Run by Youth Sport Trust, their efforts this year are focusing on every young person feeling like they have a place to belong in school sports.

Benefits of school sports

Covid brought huge disruption to children’s health and research undertaken by Youth Sport Trust shows activity levels have got worse. They have also said “children are feeling alienated by sport, that it isn’t for them and they don’t have a place within it.”

Taking part in sports can bring so many benefits to children’s emotional and physical development. They develop important motor skills, but also learn responsibility, communication, empathy and patience.

Research from the charity has shown that young people who play sport and are physically active on a regular basis will have better:

• Physical health, including cardio-vascular fitness, a healthy weight, strength, co-ordination and energy
• Mental wellbeing, including happiness, resilience, ability to tackle anxiety and stress, and improved mood through release of 'feel good' endorphins
• Emotional and social wellbeing, including feeling less lonely, more trusting, and improved communication and teamwork skills.

Another concerning piece of evidence from them is that children and young people reported fewer positive attitudes towards sport and physical activity over the 2020-21 academic year, with enjoyment and confidence in taking part seeing significant drops.

Not all kids are “sporty”, but that shouldn’t detract them from getting involved in something. Schools offer so much more than team sports such as football or netball. Your kids might prefer running, swimming, martial arts, trampolining or dancing. The important thing is keeping active and finding something they enjoy.

School sports day

School sports days offer fun ways to get involved in sports. Many schools are making the most of kids’ vivid imaginations to help plan the games and races they’re going to put on.

They might split the games into year groups and houses and set up circuit stations with different activities, such as throwing a foam ‘javelin’ the furthest, who can net the most balls into a hoop in one minute, or who can hula hoop the longest – it’s not just about who can run the fastest.

Relay races are a great way to introduce teamwork and can involve kids of different ages, and it wouldn’t be sports day without an obstacle race!

With it being the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, your child’s school might have a royal theme for this year – kids can wear corgi masks and see who’s the fastest on all fours, instead of the traditional sprint. And who can run the fastest while doing a royal wave? You can also include crowns and tiaras in your obstacle races.

The most important thing is that kids have fun – and they might not even realise how active they’ve been.

Sports kits

Whether it’s for sports day or any other sport your children might be taking part in, our AKOA sports brand makes sure your kids have the best technical performance PE kit around. We provide unique performance sportswear that can be adapted for schools and sports clubs.

Our range of PE kit items are suitable for both indoor and outdoor sports. For summer we have shorts and t-shirts, but it can also be cold so make sure they have a long-sleeved top or fleece and some tracksuit bottoms or long sports socks to keep legs warm if needed.

Whether you buy off the shelf from stock, or design your bespoke kit with Kit Builder, you can match your team colours with the option of adding badges, logos and text for a truly unique look.