Sports is an important part of a child’s educational journey and development as it fosters transferable characteristics that are applicable to everyday life as well as building character along the way.
In their quest to master sporting skills, children will also develop desirable traits exhibited by being a team player – respect, discipline, commitment, collaborating and communicating with others.
Sports educators are critical in creating environments for sporting excellence. We spoke to Danny Tauroa, a Secondary Years PE Educator and the Activities Coordinator at GEMS World Academy (Singapore) (GWA) who brings to his school a love of coaching and a winning teaching philosophy.
Danny has a hectic schedule teaching secondary years PE classes and coaching the rugby teams. He is also a pivotal member in developing the GWA (Singapore) sports program where rugby, swimming, football, basketball and touch rugby are key areas of focus.
A Love for Coaching
Danny had always coached the younger teams when he played rugby. Once he finished playing for Bay of Plenty representative teams, it was a natural progression to become a coach.
He started coaching kids aged 11 to 13 and had much success. When he moved to Singapore in 2005, he coached alongside his teaching commitments. Firstly, the Bedok King, (a local club side) who won the national championships three years in a row and subsequently the Singapore men’s and women’s rugby teams for four years each.
Working with the National squads gave him insight into sport at a more elite level – the details needed to prepare teams at this level were magnified and the difference between success or failure could come down to the smallest of margins. This winning mindset Danny brought to his teaching.
A Passion for Sports
Sport provides opportunities for children to develop their personalities through hard work. Identifying things that have worked and not worked and then making changes that will reflect in better performances. How well children can deal with success and failure in sport is a big indicator of how they are able to deal with the ups and downs in life. It is the role of educators like Danny to foster this ethos of determination while encouraging reflection and self-improvement and lending a helping hand when needed.
The GWA (Singapore) Sports Programme
The special sports focus at GWA (Singapore) is geared to develop a sporting culture which is not so much about winning or losing, (although winning is still important), but building the character of the students.
The sporting aims of the school is to have as many teams as possible and available for all students in the five core sports. Having teams from GWA (Singapore) involved in competitive games against other international schools breeds an interest in competitive sports within the school and is a major factor towards generating school spirit. Once GWA (Singapore) is consistently fielding a number of teams across a number of disciplines, it will be time, according to Danny, to start looking at ways to include new sports, to be more competitive and to develop that winning mindset.
Visit GEMS World Academy for more information on their sporting programmes.
