My children are keen participants in both sports and the performing arts, in fact all co-curricular activities where they get to use their creativity and other non-academic skills, therefore I am so grateful that Tenby organises all these kind of activities, because it truly shows how important it is to the school to provide an all-round education for my children.
And it works well, because my children always seem to have something to look forward to in school and that is really important for them in order to stay interested and motivated on a continuous basis.
Especially the PE Department in Tenby has been very active this term, and I think they are doing very well, as the students have so many choices to get involved in the sports they like.
The Head of the PE Department even encourages the students to come for the try outs, so a couple of Saturdays ago, both my children went for the swimming tryouts and are now participating in the ISAKL Swim Gala this coming Saturday 5th December. It is going to be great fun and I just love watching swimming competitions, as they are so fast paced and exciting, and at such events you get to see some excellent swimmers that swim so fast that it takes your breath away, and it makes you wonder how it’s possible to swim that fast, but it’s all part of the excitement.
I remember when my husband and I went along with our children to the Fobissea games in Penang with their previous International School, as both of them were participating, and especially the swimming events were exhilarating to watch, and seeing your children win races and get medals are undescribable and so exciting and a happy event.
However my children haven’t practiced swimming for a while and only so a couple of weeks now since the tryouts 2 weeks ago, so when I raised this concern to the Head of PE at last Saturday’s training in the school, he responded “don’t worry, we don’t really expect winning medals because it’s our first competition and the competition from the other schools is very tough, but if we do win medals, it’s a bonus, and it’s about participation”.
I think this attitude is great and is the right way to go about it, because he makes it something that is fun to participate in and something to look forward to without the high expectations of having to win, as Tenby is still a young school and it can’t be compared to the other international schools like ISKL, GIS and Alice Smith, as they have had swimming clubs for years and their students are very competitive with daily swimming training, which is a commitment and level that my children won’t be able to attain, as they have other interests as well, and that’s alright, because just getting the opportunity to participate and try their best, is good enough, as it still teaches them valuable lessons, even more so when they lose, because they have to accept losing with the right attitude and learn from their experiences.
Not that I expect them to lose, but let me just say that the competition is going to be very tough, but it’s going to be exciting to watch all the swimmers, and I wish them all the best of luck!
My daughter wanted to participate ISAKL
and had a hard trainning for a few months.
She really want to be selected as a member of the team to go to KL for competition. But, unfortunately, she could not be selected and disapointed. But, she knew that even if she tried her best, sometimes she could not get a success.
People can not succeed in anything if they don’t do their best, but also even if they do their best, sometimes they can’t succeed.
Then, this year we are unable to go to ISAKL, but I am telling her to try again and
the most important thing is never-give-up.
Our daughter’s friends are participating the
competition. So, please support those children from St. Christopher International Primary School in Penang.
Re signing up for Tenby, thank you very much for your advise. I talked with Mala and send her the appliction form already.
Maybe, next year she will contact me to come to school for testing.
Thank you very much once agein,
Best Regards
Takeshi Yano
From Ghita: Dear Takeshi Yano, I am sorry for not responding to your comment earlier. These couple of months have been very busy for me. I am sorry your daughter couldn’t go to the ISAKL swimming gala, when she has worked so hard for it. And I do agree with you, never give up, as the time will come to those who make the efforts on a continuous basis. I hope she will be successful in getting into TIS, as the school still has a fairly small team of swimmers, hence if your daughter keeps at it, she will be able to compete for Tenby International School. This week Tenby Schools are participating in the state swimming competition, and my daughter was selected to participate in a number of events, but we felt it was too big an event with over 30 local schools participating, and I didn’t have the time to come along and stay with her, so she didn’t attend. But she accepted it, as she understood that sometimes it just doesn’t work out. And luckily she gets to compete in a swimming meet with another international school in Kuala Lumpur later this month.
By: Takeshi Yano on December 3, 2009
at 3:30 pm