JINAN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Despite the winter chill, the football pitch remains bustling at Zaozhuang Road Primary School in Rizhao, east China's Shandong Province.
The school's Principal Cup tournament featured 310 matches across different grades. Despite the already packed schedule, some students hope to play even more matches.
The school has a full-size pitch equipped with ten goals placed side by side. During class breaks, students gather across the pitch, with each team having its own gate.
"More goals allow more teams to play at the same time," explained vice principal Zhang Jie.
Students are allowed to wear football kits as their school uniforms, meaning they can head straight back to class after playing during breaks without worrying about changing clothes.
"Some students may find it inconvenient to change into their kits and store their uniforms, thus discouraging them to play football," said school head Song Kaihua. "We need to make it easy for children to play whenever they like."
The school chose to develop a football-friendly environment. After consulting students extensively about their needs, the school converted several storage rooms beside the pitch into locker rooms equipped with showers, refrigerators and other facilities. Additionally, lighting has been installed above the pitch, providing sufficient illumination for evening training.
The school soon found a new problem - insufficient balls. A few students began bringing their own footballs to classrooms. To ensure students would not get distracted during lessons, the school decided to place a football rack at the entrance of each classroom.
Here, football lessons have been incorporated into physical education classes, one session for each class per week, where students receive systematic training in basic skills like dribbling, passing, juggling and shooting.
Zhang said every class has its own football team, and students have come up with many creative names for their teams.
The school has established its own "Football Day", which includes a variety of activities, with the most popular one being a father's football match.
According to Fang Shuaiwei, a football teacher at the school, these events aim to help students develop healthy exercise habits alongside family members.
"We hope to promote more effective parent-child interactions, foster children's physical and mental well-being, and enhance family harmony," said Fang. ■
