Belonging with Purpose: The Life Lessons Sport Teaches

What a wonderful couple of weeks of sport with both APS Finals and Inter-House Athletics Carnivals. We’ve had some great wins, some close losses; however, through all of it, I have been most impressed by the way in which our staff speak to the students about both the humility and grace that we show when we both win and lose. For me, this is one of the most important learning aspects of sport. How we respond in moments of heightened emotion says a lot about character.

Sport is an important part of who we are here at Somerset. The Spartan spirit is one that should encourage all our students to want to get involved. However, playing sport whilst in school is often more about the life lessons and the building of character than the physical skills students develop, and as parents and educators, we know that sometimes these can be tough lessons to learn. How to commit to a team or turn up regularly to training, to take direction from a coach, to manage the emotions when we lose, when we don’t get selected, when we are injured and so the list goes on. Again, how we respond in these moments goes to our character.

Over the past couple of months, parents will have noticed a strong message around expectations, especially for our students in the senior school, particularly around uniforms, conduct in the classroom, respect for others and our facilities. For me, an area where we want to ensure we continue to have high expectations for Somerset students is in the commitment to our sporting teams, both to APS and our club programs.

One of our values is to Belong with Purpose. Being part of team, whatever the sport and whatever our role, is not just about the sport itself, it is about learning skills of commitment and teamwork, even when we might not always feel like showing up. These are life skills that we are teaching when we engage with sport. As I shared earlier, hearing our staff not only coach for the skills of the game, but in lessons for life, is why sport and so many other co-curricular activities, (like performing arts and band) are so important.

We are looking forward to another successful semester starting in July and our Somerset focus is going to be on belonging to our team with purpose, showing up for training, committing to the team and playing each Thursday or Friday with passion. I do want to acknowledge the incredible work our staff show in supporting many opportunities for our students to get involved, to learn about themselves and to learn so many skills along the way.