2020.10.24 Saturday / Published in news & event

Physical Education, Health Program and Mental Development at BIS

At Boston International School, students’ physical and mental health is one of the top priorities that we attach great importance to. Thus, we value Physical Education, Health Program as well as Mental Development. Below is some latest progress on these area from both Elementary School and Secondary School.

Secondary School – PE and Health

All Grades started the with a fitness and development unit based upon improve our overall personal fitness through the unit and afterwards as well. Students have tested themselves in sprints, vertical jump, standing long jump, and flexibility. There were some massive improvements upon retesting after 6 weeks.

The Health Program is up and running for all students in Grade 6-10. Current units of range from Personal Hygiene to Bullying and Speaking Up to Nutrition and Digestion.

Grade 6 and 9 have just developed their accuracy and precision in a variety of individual target sports. The statement of inquiry was “People challenge themselves and others through performance in training and game play”. Students inquired and found ways to improve and develop their personal skills in Frisbee Golf, Indoor Bowls, and Darts.

Grade 7 and 8 have shown their football (soccer) skills and develop their communication as team. The focus of the unit was to communicate effectively and use team strategies help you out play your opponent. Grade 7 and 8 have recently begun track and field unit with all grades to follow in the next two weeks in preparation for the BIS Athletics in November.

Grade 10 have created, adapted and improved games in their most recent unit titled ‘Modified Sports’. The students have enjoyed the ability to shown leadership and creativity in the classroom with an overall goal designing an effective sport or game.

Elementary School – Social Emotional Learning Program

This year in Elementary school we have were keen to use a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program to support and develop the social emotional skills of our students. At Boston we value the development of the whole child and felt this was an area where we could enhance their understanding. Social and Emotional Learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to:

Understand and manage emotions

Set and achieve positive goals

Feel and show empathy for others

Establish and maintain positive relationships

Make responsible decisions

We have now introduced the Highway Heroes program into Elementary grades. This is a fun and engaging program that uses role play, discussion, music and activities to help children learn about life and growing up. It uses the analogy of being on a “Highway” where we face Bumps and Hazards along this growing up journey. We then learn different Tools to help us get past these Bumps or Hazards to get back on the Social, Learning or Emotional Highway. Our students learn about themselves, their emotions, how to manage challenges in the classroom, in the playground and in friendships.

In KG, we have now started using the Little Highway Heroes curriculum to teach the same concepts but in a simplified format. This is easier for the younger students to engage and understand as we use stories, puppet characters and songs to learn some of these difficult concepts. This week in KG we had a relay – group activity to build a paper cup pyramid. Each member of the group had to wait and be patient while waiting for their turn, they had to cope with other students brushing past them to return to the line and then be careful not to knock over other groups structures. Some groups pyramids fell and they had to start again but EVERY KG used their “Super Thinking” to stay calm, wait their turn and work as a team.