The Stress Of Sports Day

     Late afternoon earlier this year at the UWCSEA fields, the grade seven students anxiously awaited to hear their sports day results.For some people in grade seven Sports day wasn't fun but another burden to add stress to their already academic abundant lives. Sports Day had been memorable for every class full of positives and negatives. Some classes such as 7_2, Ms Guintos class were enthusiastic. Whereas other classes such as 7_7, Mr. Murray's class were worked up and jittery as they weren't as confident about their performance.

     Earlier on that day Mr. Murray's class had brutally lost to 7_2 in a game of Basketball. The game had left 3 of the 6 members of 7_7’s team injured. By halftime 7_7 was stressed about the game and fretting for the final results as they were already down 20-4. Within the first 5 minutes of the second half two players from either teams were on the floor grappling like toddlers. A player from each team were forced to pull them apart and set them aside to the benches.

     The player from 7_7 came out with a twisted ankle and a badly bruised tailbone and lower back where as the player from 7_2 escaped with merely a few scratches. 7_7 was distressed at they were down by 4 in the last few minutes and knew they had no chance of winning sports day. “I don't blame us for the loss as we knew the other team had more athletic ability than us” - Long Hin, 7_7 “It was all their fault, they pulled me down and caused me to get injured they should be the ones bearing the loss” Angus Tymms, 7_7. The weight off the stress eventually knocked them down as when 7_2 went to receive the gold trophy their world went blurry as they cried buckets of tears.

     This isn't the only time at UWC where kids have been stressed due to Sports. Getting into Middle School the academics get more and more challenging as they start the GCSE syllabus. On top of that they are expected to play a sport, or sports and do over 6 months of mandatory community service. There is a stress to perform and always give your best even if you are feeling under the weather. The teams are competitive and push the kids to their limit.

- Anisha Sullivan 

Haze Affects PE Lessons At UWCSEA

As the haze continued to swoop in, the UWCSEA PE department made a plan. They decided to change the PE unit so students got more of an opportunity to learn without haze trouble. All PE units that took place outside were changed to an indoor sport, some being basketball and ping pong. The plan took place on October 28th. The idea behind this is so the students don’t only have a couple on and off days but get a whole extra unit to learn more things. The PE unit that was cancelled and changed was swimming. “It’s so you guys get a stable PE unit and not different topics every lesson” Said Taylor Smith, head of swimming in UWCSEA and PE teacher.

Adding on to that, the haze continued to ruin other sports such as after school rugby, football and more. “We haven’t been able to play properly and our finals in 2 weeks!” One touch rugby player said, wanting to kick the wall in anger. She also added that “I haven’t been able to go outside like go to the park or play games” The students continue to wait, hoping that the haze will vanish. The alternative is to play indoor sports that were meant to be outside such as football, this is proving to be difficult as all sports are forced to moved inside. We all continue to wait for this ghastly haze to pass.