The CIS Athletics and PE Department are working with school administrators and health officials to determine the safest way to return to sports. Being active daily is vitally important for the physical, social, emotional, and mental health of our students. In addition to being active, training in sports teaches our students about teamwork, responsibility, and working towards goals; all of which are key learning outcomes in the Alberta curriculum.
Returning to Internal Sports Competitions
Our number one priority in restarting the CIS Sports program is ensuring the health and safety of our students and staff, especially in the context of Covid-19. In order to continue playing sports during the Covid-19 pandemic we’ve had to significantly adapt our sports program. As of January 2021, we are still not permitted to have inter-school sports competitions. In addition, it has been almost one year that our students have not been able to participate in school sports. Therefore, the focus of the CIS sports program at this point in time is on training and internal competitions. Over the past few weeks we have implemented the following sports training sessions:
- MS/HS basketball
- MS/HS soccer
- MS/HS swimming
- Grade 4-5 soccer
In the coming weeks we plan to add the following:
- Grades 1-5 competitive swim teams
- Grades 1-3 sports training sessions
Returning to Interschool Sports Competitions
As we slowly start to reignite our sports program at CIS, I believe it’s important that we remember where our sports program was pre-Covid. Our CIS sports teams are members of ISSAPP (the International Schools Sports Association of Phnom Penh), the local sports league where our boys and girls from grades 4-10 competed year-round against other local international schools in swimming, soccer, basketball, volleyball, track and field, and cross-country running. We are also members of ASAC (ASEAN Sports and Activities Conference), where our Grade 6-10 sports teams competed against international schools from Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia! Our grade 2-5 students are members of YAPP (Young Athletes of Phnom Penh), where they were able to participate in large sports events once per month with other international schools in Phnom Penh. And of course we had our yearly Angkor Wat Marathon trip where 60+ CIS students trained for, and participated in the race in Siem Reap. All of these great programs will resume once it is safe to do so. In the meantime, our students will train and compete internally in order to prepare for our return to normal!