The Warsaw High School Times

Graphic by Rita Pasiewicz

The 2023 Winter Sports Festival at the British School of Warsaw was the first event of its kind for the school in recent history specifically due to the time of its hosting. It is also an event that occurred quite a while back, in December, to be exact. As such, why cover it in February? Well, the answer is quite interesting and possibly difficult to guess at first.

For starters, it is important to note that, save for the few years during the Coronavirus pandemic, the TBS Sports Day is an annual event, occurring every spring/summer for all grades studying at the main campus (so grades 1 and above). Naturally, as TBS is a combined primary school, middle school and high school, with over 1000 pupils, there is actually no one “Sports Day”, instead there are several, for different grades. For instance, grades 8, 9 and 11 may have a sports day together.

Last school year, this sports festival for upper middle and high school was hosted in a small, rented stadium, and was thus quite an interesting show. This school year, however, saw the introduction of the Winter Sports festival. But why?

It all comes down to grade 10.

Grades 9 and 10 (or years 10 and 11, according to the TBS system), equivalent to grades 1 and 2 of high school in Poland, study according to the IGCSE program, essentially a pre-IB or pre-A-levels system. At the end of grade 10, pupils must sit the IGCSE exams for their selected subjects. As such, grade 10/year 11 pupils of TBS are excluded from many school events between April and June, including the Sports Day. To combat this issue, the PE (Physical Education) department of the school decided to create the first Winter Sports Festival in the school’s (at least recent) history.

This event was certainly less grandiose than the Sports Day of last school year; instead of being hosted at a rented stadium, it was hosted within the school. Some of the activities and events were simplified, and the activities were different overall; there was more emphasis on team sports, such as Volleyball, Football or Basketball, which were not present during the 2023 Sports Day, which focused more on athletics. While the activities were generally fun, there were some issues to be seen. The pentathlon, for one, had pupils running outside in the cold on a brick and (for a part) downward sloping road, and coupled with the presence of ice (though none directly on the track) was quite frightening to sprint on. However, there was a more glaring issue present: the lack of people.

This is not wholly unusual; Sports Days at TBS have been historically plagued by absenteeism, with many students for whatever reasons preferring to stay at home rather than engage in some good sport and have fun on the track. Last year, the grade 9 Bison (one of the four “houses” of TBS) male team consisted of only four individuals, though still managed to achieve great results in some events. However, the scale of this phenomenon was astounding during the 2023 Winter Sports Festival. Some houses found it difficult to have a full volleyball team with six players, whereas other houses were stretched so thin that they were completely unrepresented in some events (the Bison house, for instance, did not at all have a dance team, whereas the Bear house had only one contestant in that event from grade 10).

The fact that some pupils choose to skip Sports Days and similar events is certainly hurtful towards those teams which wish to engage competitively; as all students have to sign up by default, those who skip the day place the entire house in jeopardy, as nobody knows who will be present and who will not, and whether there will be enough people for certain activities. The issue is, there is simply no punishment for skipping one of such events, so there is nothing stopping students from doing so.

Finding the solution to this problem may be difficult. A potential one could be to make such events, including the sign-ups, fully voluntary, so that at least all house members are aware of who will be competing. Another potential solution could be the introduction of stricter punishments for skipping this day, and demanding verification from a doctor that the pupil in question is actually sick if that is their excuse. Currently, however, it does not appear that the school is viewing this problem as a serious one and has not implemented any measures to fully resolve it.

The Winter Sports Festival of 2023 was an interesting experiment. Despite the somewhat low turnout rate, it was generally successful, and many claimed to have enjoyed it in spite of their earlier doubts. Whether this event will continue, ensuring that grade 10 does not fully miss out on such occasions as a result of their exams, remains to be seen. With the annual summer Sports Day coming up, it is time to see whether the school will learn from past events and implement some much-needed changes.