Fitness Tips

Whilst working on your balance and coordination may not be on the top of your daily to-do list, it is actually a really important and little recognised part of health and wellbeing. For those who train regularly, balance and coordination are often missed from the training regime. Balance and coordination are part of your day whether consciously or unconsciously. Your brain interacts with your body when you’re doing various things, it interacts with how your senses work, it interacts and controls how your body moves together, or independently. Consciously working on your balance and coordination can help you stay functionally fit, maintain your focus and cognitive function and may even improve your health span. What we mean by functionally fit is being able to do day to day tasks more easily and flexibly for longer. For example: • Getting dressed, having the coordination to stand on one leg to put your trousers or socks on • Having coordination to tie your shoelaces up • Multitasking perhaps at work or at home • Carrying your shopping • Being able to lift a suitcase off the carousel at the airport The mind body connection can help with your focus too. If we don’t train our balance and our focus, like with any muscle or habit, if we stop working it our proficiency tends to drop off.

Here are a few simple ideas you can do without any equipment: • One-legged deadlift • Side balances • One leg or arm raises • Standing on one leg on your own or during standing meetings • Tight rope walk (not an actual tight rope walk

but one foot in front of other heal to toe along a straight line) • Front, back or side leg raises • Yoga poses like tree pose • Step up and down using your bottom step Practising balance and coordination and cognitive exercises that connect mind and body now will put you in great stead for a better health span long term. Stability is a big part of it too, ensuring as you become older you have the balance, coordination and stability to perhaps mitigate against a fall, or you are able to walk on grass rather than the firmer pavement, or walk without a stick, get up and down the stairs etc.

Some other perhaps overlooked ways, are things that use all of your senses. So if you’re walking and listening to a podcast, for instance, you’re using your coordination, stimulating the senses in different ways whilst doing something enjoyable. Standing during meetings can be a great way to engage mind and body. Sewing is great for focus and hand and eye coordination. Meditation has been proven to help with all kinds of coordination, balance and focus because it increases your focus, attention span and quality of your focus. All of these things can really help you become better at balance and coordination and also tune and improve your fine motor skills.

Neil Green, Assistant Head (Co-curricular and Partnerships) at Alleyn’s tells us how co-curricular activities can benefit your child.

As the evenings begin to draw in it is tempting to ‘batten down the hatches’ and focus purely on helping your child with the academic side of their education, but there are good reasons to put some focus onto non-academic activities too.

Research shows that when children participate in co-curricular activities there are often related improvements in their academic performance. While this might be motivation enough for you to encourage them to participate in clubs, there are numerous other benefits:

The variety of learning opportunities clubs and co-curricular activities can offer are myriad: leadership, teamwork, empathy, concentration, social awareness, creativity, curiosity, physical skills (co-ordination, balance, fine motor skills). These can involve multiple senses, self-expression, problem solving, public speaking… the list goes on! In addition, your child will learn how to manage their time efficiently as they increase their range of interests.

A child who is adding strings to their bow outside their academic pursuits can reap the benefits in their physical well-being (if the pursuit is a sporting one) and equally important their mental well-being, as they work alongside their peers with a sense of purpose and commitment. This – with the sense of belonging, either to their school community or to whichever clubs or sports they attend outside school – helps raise their self-esteem and their selfconfidence.

Attending clubs and activities in your local area gives your child a chance to get out and about. Older children might develop some independence by travelling to the club location on their own, while younger children will benefit from a change of scenery at the club location itself. They will all experience different scenarios and locations, as well as getting some much-needed fresh air!

Recent times may have felt somewhat lacking in joy on occasion, with many children missing opportunities to spend social time with other children of their age. Many clubs have been forced to close and sporting activities have been cancelled. Getting together with other children with similar interests - be it sport, coding or music - and working towards a common purpose, is a productive way for your child to relax and enjoy themselves and simply have fun

While the provision of clubs and other co-curricular activities both in your child’s school and locally might be sporadic over the coming months, encourage your child to take opportunities where they are available so that they can expand the breadth of activities they take part in and try something new – they might just find a new passion! You can find lots of information on local clubs and activities on your local forums including the SE magazines platform Around Dulwich.

‘The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding’ Ofsted 2017

We invite you to come to West Dulwich in South London to discover just how we get the best out of our students and harness top talent within an ethos characterised by warmth, culture and care. The amazing popularity of the school is a refl ection of our renowned academic achievements, inspirational award-winning learning environment and the unusually rare opportunities we provide. Kingsdale is extremely proud of its special reputation and heritage in Music and Mathematics. We offer scholarships for new entrants

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*By prior appointment only. Virtual tours will also take place during events above. For information on admission to our Sixth Form for 2022 and to receive a Sixth Form prospectus please visit our website or contact the school by email at:

to the school who show musical, mathematical, artistic or sporting talent. Scholars receive free individual or small group tuition provided by expert professionals, to the value of £1,000 per annum. There is equality of access for admission places irrespective of distance from the school or home locality. Kingsdale offers private tours of the school during normal working hours throughout the academic year. Tours are arranged for prospective parents at a time that best suits them!