At a private school, co-curricular sport is usually compulsory.
The series on whether to teach in public or private schools continues. This is series of posts to discover all of the factors in deciding where to teach, so as to make the most informed choice for my situation. I hope that others may participate in this discussion and may use these thoughts in making their own decision. This thought was proposed by Kate Ramshaw.
The fact that co-curricular sport is compulsory means that teachers are often called in for participating in coaching. From my knowledge, each teacher is normally required to coach a team.
This has both positive and negative sides to it. The fact that you cans spend extra time with the students outside of class allows the teacher to continue their influence in their lives. It may also allow students to see the teacher in a different setting and possibly build respect. This is of course if the teacher has a sport that they are enthusiastic to coach.
Sport however, takes extra time. In the life of a teacher, especially a new teacher, there is already restrictions on time. Will the extra time taken to coach mean that sacrifices will need to be made in the rest of your life?
Read the rest of the posts in this series at Public vs Private | Main Page.
Related posts from calumhenderson.com:
Not at all schools. We don’t coach sport- the PE department looks after all of that. At some schools involvement in debating, band, choir etc…. can free you up from sport time.
Sport, however, does help you get to know the kids and their parents. There is a lot of reserach pointing to the benefits of strong home/school relationships for motivation, achievement etc…
Thanks for the information Liz. I didn’t know that some schools didn’t get teachers to take sporting teams.
Would you say that activities such as debating coaching or conducting a choir could be helpful as well?