High premium on physical education at Dubai American Academy

The Dubai American Academy offers 27 extra-curricular activities for its pupils, and sport figures prominently on that list.

The school fields six teams in almost every sport it plays. There is a coaching staff of 48, and the boys and girls compete nearly every week during the sports season, which stretches from September to the end of April.

Aside from the benefits of physical activity and competition, the school believes the extensive programme is vital to the pupils' academic future at universities.

"It goes on to their transcripts," Jodi O'Reilly, the director of athletics at the school, said. "So when they apply, particularly for any of the American universities, any through England, Europe, Australia, even South Africa, any of those, they [the universities] will look at the co-curricular programme."

The young athletes also gain the experience of international travel. The school track and field team has just returned from the Middle East South Asia Conference in Delhi, for example.

O'Reilly, who accompanied the team, believes experiencing a different culture and society was enriching for the pupils.

"When you look at Doha, Abu Dhabi and here, it's very similar in the area, in the people that you see and that side of it," she said. "Cairo starts to bring in another aspect, particularly with the poverty side. Delhi brings in that as well.

"I think that was really interesting for the kids to see that it is very prevalent, it's there on the streets.

"But at the same time, we take them, we go to a tourist market. So they were able to actually barter and buy and bring back the presents and do that side of it."

The school did well in the competition, finishing with 24 medals, but O'Reilly said the focus of the 29-member squad was on improving their personal times.

"I look at the personal best performances of each student instead because we have very few competitions," she said. "You can have 15 or 16 year olds competing against 18 year olds. You can have 13 year olds competing against 16 year olds.

"So as long as they do their best performance, that's more my concern."

arizvi@thenational.ae