Boarding: The benefits of exercise

Boarding: The benefits of exercise Physical education has shown great benefits to our boarding community. As a former Director of Sport and physical education specialist I have taken a keen interest in promoting the benefits of exercise to our boarders, always offering advice and encouragement to help them improve. Our “Boarders Alive” programme, which focuses on exercise, nutrition and healthy living, plays a key role in the daily routines of our students, and we are seeing the many benefits the programme offers to our boarders.

Many studies have proven the link between exercise and academic success, and we therefore encourage our boarders to take small breaks from revision and go for some fresh air, a bit of exercise or a game of football. We see that our boarders grow in confidence, gain social skills and improve their academic performance, but furthermore,  results of our regular fitness tests show that our boarders not only continue to develop their personal bests but compare highly favourably with the day students. It is no coincidence that our school sports teams include a high proportion of boarding students and in sports days and inter-school cross country events boarders continue to excel, winning lots of medals.

I believe strongly that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind, but importantly, our students are motivated and challenged to improve and to beat their personal bests. The reaction from all of the boarders, junior boys, senior boys and the girls has been tremendous and we are very proud of their desire to persevere.

Learning to go beyond your comfort zone, pushing yourself a little harder, encouraging others and challenging your limits are extremely valuable skills that we aim to pass on to our students not only through Physical Education, but across the curriculum at Regents International School Pattaya, and therefore make it one of our main objectives in boarding, too.

Dean Barrick, Houseparent, Boarding