A team is defined as a number of people who do something together as a group, but what defines a team? I think most people would probably agree that teams are often defined by success. As you move up the sporting world this generally comes through fame money, fame and public interest. Unfortunately, fame, money and public interest is where our sports teams fall a little short, thankfully however, these are not the yardsticks used to measure the success of our pupils.

Being a part of a team isn’t always easy. Earlier this year we broke a near 600 day hiatus away from team sports due to Covid-19 and a lot of pupils are still getting their heads around what it means to be a part of a sports team, what it takes and what benefits it has. The participation in these team sports allows pupils an intense opportunity of teamwork and camaraderie that is hard to experience in any other facet of school life. I can vouch for this intensive experience, playing rugby and cricket on my free weekends.

The value of the teamwork for children however, is paramount to their development of personal relationships and team work. Although regular games lessons offer opportunities to develop teamwork and communication skills they don’t quite offer the same ‘us against them’ mentality that’s experienced when representing Fyling Hall against another school. It’s this mentality that puts all school yards stoushes aside and unites our pupils, driving them towards the same goal. Whether it’s on the rugby field, hockey pitch, netball court or football ground. Whether they’ve won, lost or drawn and whether they realise it or not. Every time our pupils pull on a Fyling Hall playing top and represent the school with their peers, they are gaining valuable skills far beyond those physical attributes associated with the sport they’re playing. It is these virtues of pride, teamwork and commitment which defines the teams we have.

Justin Mayne, Games Teacher