School dodgeball club boosts teamwork and sportsmanship at Sports Day
Burdett Coutts & Townshend Foundation CE Primary School said its dodgeball club was a huge hit this term, with pupils arriving for each session full of energy and commitment. The school used its July 10 newsletter to tie that club momentum to a Sports Day that it described as safe, successful and helped by kind weather.
Sports Day brought families into the school grounds and gave pupils a chance to show the sportsmanship and enthusiasm that had marked the term. The teachers' race and other events helped give the morning a strong sense of occasion, and the school said the day was a joyful way to close out another year for its Church of England primary community in central London.
The dodgeball club matters because it shows why the sport fits primary schools so well. The school said the sessions helped children build throwing, catching, dodging, movement, communication, quick decision-making and good sportsmanship, all within a format that can keep mixed-ability pupils involved from start to finish. That combination of simple organisation and steady repetition makes dodgeball an easy sell for schools looking to add activity without heavy costs or complicated setup.
The broader school-sport picture backs that up. Your School Games says dodgeball first joined the School Games in 2014 and now draws more than 35,000 pupils into inter-school events each year. British Dodgeball's primary-school materials set out age-appropriate rules and equipment for under-11 courts, and its school regulations govern Schools Championships and other competitions under its jurisdiction. England Lions Dodgeball was formed in 2010, and the World Dodgeball Federation says British Dodgeball became the UK's non-profit national governing body in 2017, reinvesting income from membership, events, coach education and sales back into the sport. For a school like Burdett Coutts, that creates the kind of grassroots base that can keep dodgeball growing well beyond elite finals and national brackets.