Dear GISS Community,

Term 3 has begun, and anyone who has walked around our campus over the past few weeks will have noticed that work is underway in the lower part of the school. The refurbishment of our Sports Hall and the adjoining rooms is now well underway.

I would like to briefly update you on where we currently stand. The affected areas have been assessed, the refurbishment is progressing, and several rooms have already been cleared for use by the hygiene specialists. The work is being professionally supervised and carried out in close consultation with our insurer. Regarding the Sports Hall floor, the School Leadership Team has presented a recommendation to the Board. Naturally, we will share the outcome with you as soon as a decision has been made.

I know that the restrictions are noticeable. This year, our Spring Recital Evening, the Interchoral Music Festival, our IB Mock Examinations and the DSD examinations are taking place, or have taken place, at Miramare Gardens. It is a beautiful setting, and I would like to thank everyone who has supported these changes to our arrangements so calmly and positively. My thanks also go to our Sports teachers, who are currently using great creativity to organise alternative activities and spaces.

This is where I would like to pause for a moment. The empty Sports Hall raises a question that has long occupied us as educators: "What role does physical movement actually play in learning?"

In the public perception, sport is often seen as something that takes place alongside “real” learning: a way to balance things out, a break, an outlet. When timetables become crowded, the question sometimes arises as to whether Sport could be cancelled occasionally,  often alongside Music and Art. Research over the past two decades paints a rather different and very interesting picture.

Let us begin with the obvious: physical activity increases blood flow to the brain and stimulates the release of chemical messengers that support the growth and development of neural connections. The effect on attention and memory can be measured, and it continues beyond the period of physical activity itself. A class that has been physically active before a challenging lesson is more focused. This is not simply a pedagogical aspiration; it is well supported by research.

I find a second level even more interesting. Physical activity trains what are known as "executive functions",  the skills we use to regulate and manage our own behaviour. These include working memory, the ability to inhibit an impulse, and the flexibility to switch between tasks. These skills are among the strongest predictors of academic success we know. They predict later achievement more reliably than IQ, and they can be trained. Particularly effective are forms of physical activity that require coordination and rapid decision-making, such as ball games, gymnastics, martial arts and dance. A student who anticipates a pass,  who keeps an opponent in sight and simultaneously adjusts their own position, is engaging cognitively in something very similar to solving a complex problem.

In early years, the connection goes even deeper. For young children, motor and cognitive development do not simply run in parallel, they are closely intertwined. Concepts such as up and down, before and after, heavy and light are first experienced physically and only later become abstract concepts. A child does not truly understand balance through an explanation, but by walking along a log and perhaps falling off. When we prioritise movement in Preschool and Primary, this is not simply an accommodation for short attention spans. We are laying the foundations for later abstract thinking.

However, the third level seems most important to me, even though it is more difficult to measure. Through sport, young people learn things for which there are few opportunities elsewhere in everyday school life. You lose – visibly, in front of others – and then you have to turn up and try again the next day. You depend on teammates whom you did not choose yourself. You experience how weeks of practice can lead to something that previously seemed impossible. You learn to accept rules that apply to everyone, even when a decision goes against you in the moment. These are not by-products of Physical Education,  they are central educational goals, and there are few other subjects in which they can be experienced so directly.

There is another aspect that I encounter time and again in conversations with colleagues. Children often reveal a different side of themselves in the Sports Hall than they do in the classroom. A student who remains quiet during lessons may take on a leadership role on the playing field. A student who finds writing difficult may be the person others look to for guidance and inspiration. These experiences change how a child sees themselves, and they also change how the group sees them.

All of this reflects our core educational beliefs: that individuality is a strength, that curiosity should be encouraged, and that students should develop a growing sense of personal responsibility. We are also convinced that every child brings a unique set of strengths, and that learning should be anchored in these strengths. For some children, however, these strengths do not emerge in the “traditional” classroom. If a school makes only one form of ability visible, these children can easily go unnoticed.

For all these reasons, I believe that our Sports Hall is not simply an ancillary building. It is a place of learning, and investing in its restoration is an investment in education.

For everyday life at home, this does not mean anything complicated,  and certainly not that another organised sport needs to be added to an already busy family calendar. What is more helpful is to treat movement as a natural part of everyday life. Walking or cycling to school instead of travelling by car, or spending time outdoors on the weekend. Playing in the garden without needing a goal or a coach. Even twenty minutes of physical activity before starting homework is time well invested, even if it may feel like a delay at the time. Children need opportunities to experience and connect with their bodies, and they need adults who do not regard this time as lost learning time.

I look forward to the day when we can reopen our Sports Hall and put it back into full use. Until then, I ask for your patience with the current restrictions and thank you for your understanding.

Warm regards,

Michael Cordes
Principal