The Sport for Life School Program Kids Don’t Want to Miss
A story from Elk Island Public Schools, Sherwood Park, Alberta
Last year, a student at Clover Bar Junior High was struggling to come to school. Getting through the doors was a daily battle, and on the rare days they made it, the school day often ended early.
This year, after enrolling in a program built around the Sport for Life pillars and the Long-Term Development in Sport and Physical Activity framework, they have missed one week of school. That week was because they had the flu.
“They’re a completely different kid,” said Principal Cherum Orr. “It’s really life-changing.”
What began six or seven years ago as a single grade 7 class has grown into a division alternative program with over 300 students across grades 7 to 9.
A Program Built on Daily Movement
Sport for Life at Clover Bar replaces physical education, health and wellness, and one option course — 25 percent of a student’s school week. The activity list reads like a dream schedule: swimming, scuba diving, curling, ringette, flag football, mountain biking, CrossFit, hot yoga, and downhill skiing in the mountains. Single blocks take place in the gym, the fitness centre, or on the field. Double blocks are reserved for excursions, and some activities take a full day.
When students miss core class time, they don’t lose the academics. Teachers build in makeup blocks the following day, and on overnight trips, students complete academic work in the evenings as a group.
Cherum credits the founding teachers, who brought high-level athletic and coaching backgrounds and an understanding of the Sport for Life pillars into the classroom from day one. Since then, the teaching team has attended the Sport for Life Summit together, and eight staff members — including five Sport for Life teachers — are currently completing their Physical Literacy Leader – Level 1 certification. No one was required to sign up. Everyone said yes.
The Insight That Reshaped the Program
In the early years, the focus was on the experiences — the big trips, the year-end challenges, the culminating events students scaffolded toward. The team still values those moments. But their centre of gravity has shifted.
“We recognize more so the impact of the daily movement and how much that’s benefiting students in the program on the daily,” Cherum said. “Instead of it just being about focusing on a year-end goal, it is now looking at what the daily benefits are from the program and then how that is building the student as a whole athlete from grade seven to grade nine.”
That shift — from destination to daily practice — is one of the clearest expressions of Long-Term Development thinking you’ll find in a school setting.
What Students and Families Are Saying
Many of the students who thrive in the Sport for Life program are those who historically struggled to sit still. Kids with ADHD, kids with a lot of energy, kids who spent grade six being told to stop moving and stop talking.
“They’re able to get all their wiggles out in all of the activities, so then they’re able to focus more in their other classes,” Cherum said.
What surprised her most was how articulate the students themselves are about it. Twelve and fourteen-year-olds are telling teachers that the program helps them focus and makes them like school more. Kids whose grade 6 attendance was, in Cherum’s words, atrocious are now the ones who don’t want to miss a day.
“My daughter has so much confidence because of this program. I have never seen her step out and challenge herself like she has this year.” — Parent, Clover Bar Junior High
At a recent parent council meeting, one mother stopped Cherum unprompted to tell her, “My daughter has so much confidence because of this program. I have never seen her step out and challenge herself like she has this year.”
The Sport for Life program at Clover Bar is also open to everyone, which means elite young athletes train alongside classmates who are just discovering what their bodies can do. Cherum has watched that mix teach students how to support a teammate at a different skill level, how to work together and how to build empathy and sportsmanship.
Advice for Schools That Want to Build Something Similar
Cherum’s advice starts with people. “You have to be very specific about who is delivering the program. You need to have people who are passionate, who are skilled, people who also live Sport for Life — adults who are modelling what Sport for Life looks like as a grown-up.”
From there, she points to starting small and letting results do the talking. Clover Bar doesn’t run paid marketing. It hosts an information night at an open house, and after that, families talk to other families. Community partnerships matter too — the program leans on local CrossFit instructors, fitness studios and recreation facilities, many of which open their doors early so students can be on the mats by 8:45 a.m.
Conversations are now underway at Elk Island Public Schools about what Sport for Life foundations could look like at the elementary level, starting with grades 4-6. Cherum’s guidance to any school considering it is to begin with the pillars and foundations, not the activity list.
“Start small and let it grow,” she said. “When the program works for kids, people talk.”
One More Thing
Before we wrapped up, Cherum laughed about her own relationship to the program she leads.
“As the principal, I would love to take this program myself. I would be in the class any time they ask me to. If they’re short a supervisor and they ask if I can come ride my bike, I’m there.”
To learn more about Sport for Life’s certifications, including the Physical Literacy Leader – Level 1 course that Clover Bar’s teachers are completing as a team, visit sportforlife.ca or explore the Sport for Life Campus.