Photo Credit: Evîn Jaaf
Since their debut 15 years ago, Hamber’s PE Leadership 11 and 12 classes have risen in popularity. They’ve helped improve students’ communication skills and provided them with opportunities to give back to their school community, according to the teachers and students involved in the classes.
The courses are the brainchild of Mr. R. Millette (Physical Health Education), who based PE Leadership off a program he ran during his years teaching at Britannia Secondary School.
“Originally, when I came here, I saw our athletic director trying to find students to run all these different things for athletics, and struggling to find people,” said Mr. Millette. “We started a leadership program, and then we had a ready-made group of students who wanted to do that sort of thing.”
PE Leadership students give their time to assist with planning tournaments, refereeing and keeping score at games, running concessions at tournaments and events, and helping with other sports-related logistics.
In addition to these responsibilities, PE Leadership 12 students also visit elementary school classes three times a week. “We do some activities or we organize some games or just play with the elementary kids.” shared Etienne Bessone (12).
When they are not visiting elementary schools, PE Leadership students run class minigames for grade 8 students. According to PE Leadership 11 teacher Mr. J. Overgaard (Physical Health Education), his students have gained a lot of favour with elementary school administrators. “The principals of these schools are like ‘we need you here every day,’” he said.
Elementary school visits are a recent addition to the course; they only started within the last four years. Both Mr. Millette and Mr. Overgaard agree that this new addition has grown the scope of PE Leadership.
Many PE Leadership students say that they appreciate the opportunity to work on their communication skills and explore different aspects of PE beyond the grade 8–10 classes.
“I also like the fact that we get to host tournaments and do other things like scorekeeping,” shared Koby Chan (12). Chan said that she enjoys playing with elementary school students, and she’s also an executive for Timers and Scorers Club.
Beyond scorekeeping and timing, PE Leadership’s goal is to create a positive environment for the school community and encourage students to take initiative, according to Mr. Overgaard.
“[The] primary objective is to get our students used to volunteering and giving back in support of our school community, our intramural program, athletics, and things like that,” said Mr. Overgaard. As well, he said that PE Leadership teachers are looking for students who want to be involved and contribute to the community. “A lot of it, especially in grade 11, is getting outside your comfort zone. And that's where the growth happens.”