Playing a sport is a great way for kids to take a break from academics and release pent-up energy. Sports aim to educate children holistically and prepare them for a physically, mentally, and socially healthy life. In a world where children are spending more screen time than ever before, physical activity and outdoor sports are on the verge of diminishing. So, to make up for this and to teach the students the importance of an active and balanced lifestyle, Jasudben ML School, one of the finest ICSE schools in Khar, conducted its 36th Annual Sports Day at Wings Sports Centre, Bandra.
This year, Jasudben ML School and Bloomingdales Pre-Primary have taken an initiative to celebrate the theme “#HappyAtSchool’’. The activities that were organised for the Sports Day event, brought back the enthusiasm of students, performing and competing with their classmates just like the past years.
The exciting day commenced with the Principal and Vice-Principal welcoming the chief guest Mrs. Sarah Alphonso, an International Hockey Player and Hockey Secretary of MSSA (Mumbai Schools Sports Association). This was followed by the March Past and the Principal’s welcome speech. The Chief guest was seen to deliver a speech right after. Up next, was the torch run, and finally, the chief guest declared the sports meet open.
The primary students of classes 3 and 4 presented a beautiful Lezim dance performance, which was followed by a yoga demonstration by secondary school students. After that, the races began. The students in the Primary section participated in challenging and fun races like skipping race, 30mt back run, dragging the ball, going to the party, obstacle race, and hopping race. The school had even organised a race for ex-students and parents too.
Apart from that, the Secondary section from V to XII held its 100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre, and 800-metre finals in the Under-12, Under-14, Under-16, and Under-18 categories for boys and girls. The heats for these races along with the Shot Put finals were conducted a day before the event.
The day came to a close with the award ceremony where trophies were distributed to the winning teams for the inter-house Football, Throwball, Cricket, Tug-of-War and Volleyball. And lastly, the trophies were given to the house that earned the most points across all inter-house competitions held during this academic year at the school, as well as the house with the greatest sports points and the house with the best March Past.
Commenting on the successful event, the Principal of Jasudben ML School and Bloomingdales Pre-Primary, Mrs Damayanti Bhattacharya, said, “At JML, we always focus on the holistic development of a student. By focusing on not just academics but also their extracurricular activities, the school strives to play an effective role in the nurturing of children’s personalities and their all-around development. They need to stay active in their crucial years of growth, which is why we have conducted the Annual Sports event.”
She further added, “Life is a bit like a Sport – we need to display all these while we run the circle. We at J.M.L. endeavour to teach our children the value of sports in life and believe that it helps build character while academics occupy an important place in our scheme of things. I am truly grateful that we have a Physical Education Department at J.M.L. that is helpful, persevering, hard-working and extremely talented indeed. With teachers like these at the helm, it is small wonder that we have such a robust sports dept. and so many winners in the past and now. Last, but not least, I would like to salute the teachers who constantly strive to give it their all, salute the very progressive management that recognizes the value of sports in shaping the body and mind of the citizens of tomorrow.”
As an important day for the sports department, the Head of the Sports department of Jasudben ML School and Bloomingdales Pre-Primary, Mr Ravi Bagdi, said, “Sports day brings out the competitive spirit and develops true sportsmanship spirit. It is also a place where upcoming talent is noticed and is further trained to represent the school towards bigger avenues.
Our school has done extremely well in the CISCE State and National Level competitions in Yoga, Throwball, Lawn tennis and Table Tennis… Students have also done well at the Zonal and Regional CISCE competitions. Besides State and National level, our students have also done well at the international level representing India at the Commonwealth games and also the World School Games in the past.“
Every year, Annual Sports day is an exciting and huge event for students – the competition, enthusiasm, sportsman spirit, nervous excitement, hard work, and the eventual adrenaline rush – all make for a worthwhile experience that everybody looks forward to. And this year, the Annual Sports Meet yet again provided a refreshing time for both—the students and the teachers—as they took a break from regular classes and recharged themselves with revitalising sports activities.
