The Importance of Sports Facilities in Schools
Sport is an important part of the school curriculum. Taking part in regular exercise benefits children in a variety of ways.
Physical benefits
Ongoing physical activity at school helps children work off excess energy, it also helps with weight management and co-ordination. Sports lessons help young people develop skills such as how to move safely, balance and lift things.
Regular sport is also an important part of strengthening bones and muscles and can help reduce the risk of disease.
Mental benefits
The mental benefit of sport can help children deal with behavioural issues such as anxiety, depression and stress. Sport can also help children with important life skills such as gaining resilience, teamwork and in developing a good work ethic.
Social benefits
School sports lessons help children build relationships. Taking part in sports with peers can provide a safe and nurturing environment and can also help instil a sense of community. Regular sport can also help children to manage their time, as they learn how to prioritise between sport and other responsibilities such as school work.
Community Benefits
Schools are increasingly reaching out to the wider community with their provision. With more community and private sports clubs beginning to hire out school sports halls outside of the school day. Many school sports halls are now becoming integral parts of local communities and thriving hubs of activities.
Through providing state of the art sports provision to outside providers, schools can look to increase their revenue. This can be invested back into school while also fulfilling a social value of providing physical activity within the local community.
As well as the financial benefits of hiring provision out, involvement with the wider community can help enhance a schools engagement with local clubs and sports organisations and also help deliver on charitable status requirements. It can help forge relationships between school and its community members.
What makes a good Sports Complex?
Sports Hall
A good sports hall can accommodate the needs of any sport. Whether that be a high ceiling space to enable badminton to be played or a large floor plan for 5 Aside, having a flexible and adaptable dedicated building and floorplan increases its desirability for hire.
With a vast amount of sports now being covered within a schools sports curriculum, ensuring a schools sports hall is the best it can be also improves a child’s chances to flourish and excel in sport.
Safety and space are also key objectives when providing a good sports hall for children. Elements such as lighting and ventilation are vital to ensure children can carry out their sports in a comfortable way as well as easy access for disabled users and consideration for parents and spectators.
Changing Rooms
Fundamental needs like changing facilities can greatly improve a schools sports hall. With lesson times always tight within the school curriculum, having fully integrated changing facilities within a hall helps minimise disruption to the school day. Students can change and carry out their sports lessons all on the same site rather than move between sites and wasting valuable learning time. For outside sports providers on site changing facilities are an important addition as it offers people somewhere to get changed or leave footwear, coats and bags while they carry out sports.
Showers and Toilets
On site toilets offer an important amenity to a school, by having toilets on hand as part of the sports hall complex, children don’t waste time going back and forth from the sports hall to toilets located elsewhere in the school. For outside providers, toilets are often an important part of provision. Shower blocks can also be added for maximum desirability.
Storage
Lockers and storage areas enable sports leads within schools to keep themselves and their students organised. Rather than having to move equipment around and spend time preparing for different sports lessons, storage cupboards allow equipment to be readily accessible.
MMC and Sports hall provision
One of the main benefits of using MMC over traditional construction when creating sports environments is the adaptability of design and the fact modular construction can be tailored to meet bespoke requirements of a school’s needs.
Modular construction can either be freestanding or adjoined to an existing traditional build part of the school. Modular can also be used as a hybrid style of construction from the initial stages, with a steel-framed sports hall being attached to modular changing and toilet provision.
MMC provides schools with bespoke adaptable options that can be tailored to suit individualised needs and requirements.
Find out here how Modulek provided a bespoke hybrid sports hall to Upton Junior School in Broadstairs Kent:
The school now makes the most of dormant ‘out of school’ hours by hiring the facility out to sports clubs and groups.
The bespoke steel framed sports hall was designed to incorporate high ceiling space enabling it to be used for all sports such as badminton and basketball. The provision also incorporates changing rooms, toilets and a kitchen allowing it to be a fully functional self-contained space.
If you would like to find out more about how Modulek provide expert sports provision, call 01202 813121 or email [email protected] to book a free consultation with one of our directors.
Contact Us
