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FOR four young students of the Fontys Sports Academy in the Netherlands, Friday, November 30 will be a sad day because they will leave Macassar Primary School where they have been part of the school family for nearly three months now. The girls initiated the selection programmes for the school's athletics teams, got caught up in South Africa?s craze when the Boks won the World Rugby Cup, bought soccer balls, basketball balls and so on, painted the lines for a basketball court and donated the basketball goals to the school.

It all started some nine months ago when students, Dian Sijtsma, Daphne van der Velden, Nieke van de Wouw and Suzan Tanghe communicated their desire to find a school in South Africa where they could to do the obligatory internship required for the successful completion of their study.

Finding a school that would accommodate them was not a big thing. Physical training no longer being part of the curriculum for primary schools, schools depending solely on funds coming from the department of education have to do without physical education.

"Several meetings and numerous e-mail messages later the decision was taken, the student contracts signed and on September 4 we arrived at Cape Town International Airport, brimming with enthusiasm to start our stint at Macassar Primary School," says Dian.

At school they were an immediate hit. From day one it was apparent how starved for physical training the learners really were.

From perfect strangers the aspiring teachers became the darlings of both learners and teaching staff. The children can hardly wait until it is their turn to go out and play.

Physical training programmes
Over the past few months they have developed and documented physical training programmes for the school, to be used and extended in the years to come.

The results are apparent on various levels: a greater level of fitness for the learners, a comprehensive training programme for the teachers to apply and - perhaps even more important - better powers of concentration on the part of the learners due to the physical release of energies.

The principal of Macassar Primary, Mark Williams, says the children loved the four energetic students.

"They raised the funds for all the activities and they brought movement back into the school. Movement among children stimulates brain growth and makes for better equipped learners. They will be sorely missed."

Mr Williams says he will have a telecon next week with the principal of the Fontys Sports Academy in the Netherlands to make four visiting students an annual project at his school.

Says Suzan, "We will surely miss 'our' children when we leave for home on Friday, but hopefully our positive reports on our time here, will facilitate more students to come in the future and continue the project."

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