WHAT THE FOBISIA GAMES MEANS TO STUDENTS

Kashvi and Dia Students, The British School, Kathmandu's Under 15s 2022 Games Team

It's obvious that Covid-19 had a huge impact on our generation's access to education: many of us were learning online for long periods of time and unable to engage in learning in the social way we can in classrooms. Yet perhaps the impact on other crucial aspects of school is sometimes overlooked. While our teachers managed to use online platforms as a substitute for lots of what we were missing in real classrooms, many of us completely missed out on all the myriad benefits of team sports and competition for more than a year.

That's why it was such a phenomenal experience to be able to go to Thailand and participate in the Under 15s FOBISIA Games. For the first time, we were able to evaluate our skills on a global level and also experience all the social benefits of playing together. Many of us had not been abroad without our parents before, so this challenge of being away from home also felt like an important rite of passage.

The competition created a strong-knit bond between us as a team and helped us learn to communicate effectively again. And we didn't just love it because our boys’ basketball team won first-place and our girls' football team went undefeated. During and after the competition we got the opportunity to socialise with other teams. Spending this time playing games with, and learning new dance moves from other young people helped us to discover different perspectives and has prepared us more effectively for interacting with strangers in the future.

The Games also taught us a valuable lesson about failure. Our team wasn't used to playing competitively, so we weren't really used to losing either. Athletic endeavours, whether they involve practising or competing, are always made up of moments of triumph and moments of defeat. No matter what game you're playing, it's crucial to accept victory with humility and withstand failure with calm and resilience. The secret to playing well is accepting that every risk may not pay off how you wanted it to, not every game will go your way, but you will learn something from every single one. You can't let loss paralyse you, in life or on the pitch.

HOW CAN OTHER STUDENTS AND TEACHERS PREPARE FOR JOINING THE NEXT FOBISIA GAMES?

Teachers should think about the Games as an opportunity to develop mental as well as physical skills in students- discussing what losing well looks like, talking about the challenges of being so far from home and reflecting after each game;

Students should keep in mind the heat and tiring schedules they will face and try to train regularly prior to the competition;

Finding an older student who is an expert in your specialist sport might help give you some tips and confidence; Playing matches against older students in your school can really help get into the competitive spirit and offers a chance to prepare for failure too!