Kayaking as a school sport
Sport is obligatory in all schools (up until 18yrs) in France but the amount of time devoted to sport declines as the child gets older. Joe (12 years old) has 4 hours of sport a week, Iona (15 years old) has three hours per week and next year at lycée she will have to take 2 hours a week of sport.
The French Sport curriculum is not terribly focussed on team sports, and I am not sure if this a good or a bad thing. From my own perspective it is a good thing as I was pretty rubbish at sport and always the last one to be picked for any team sport!. This year Joe will do running, swimming, orienteering, judo, badminton, handball and circus skills. Yes, circus skills!!, quite how juggling and plate spinning can be deemed as a sport I have absolutely no idea!.
This year Iona can choose her sports. As with anything in France, this is extremely complicated!. Sport forms part of the brevet (GCSE’s) so you need to make a bit of an effort and not just stand at the back of the hockey pitch waiting for the bell to ring! Iona does not enjoy sport (apart from swimming which she does religiously every weekend) so being able to choose the sports she does at school has really helped (well she doesn’t moan anymore about sport at school..which I take as her enjoying it…not the she would EVER admit it!). So this year, as part of her Brevet she will be tested on Badminton, Orienteering, Step, Kayaking, Table Tennis and Handball. The college also offers lunchtime Sports clubs which Joe goes to every lunchtime, but for the first time this year, Iona has enrolled in the Badminton class, so maybe having the ability to choose your sports does encourage girls in particular to do more sport… well, there’s a theory !
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