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At Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, we firmly believe that education can never be bound within the confines of textbooks, exams, and classroom learning. Instead, it is truly about the holistic development of children, which happens best when young minds are shaped through a balance of academics and meaningful, relatable experiences. Having said that, we all know that for the longest time, children have been encouraged to focus primarily on their academic growth. Thankfully, this scenario is changing fast. The importance of extracurricular activities in children’s holistic development is now gaining a lot of attention.

At our school, which is regarded as one of the best school in Gurgaon, academic learning has always remained very important. However, we also understand and acknowledge the role that extracurricular activities play in shaping children’s overall personalities. After all, it’s through extracurricular activities that children learn to communicate more sharply, think in a structured way, behave responsibly, and even navigate challenges like a mature person.

In this blog post today, we’ve simplified the role of extracurricular activities in children’s personality development. This will help you understand the role of extracurricular activities in your kid’s life, so read along.

• Builds strong communication skills

Today, every person needs to be a strong communicator to succeed in work or academic settings. Even personal situations demand smooth communication skills to navigate rough phases. Extracurricular activities help develop this exact trait in children. These activities place children in interactive settings where they must express their opinions strongly. With repeated participation, children naturally become phenomenal communicators and develop strong verbal fluency.

We would proudly like to mention here that our students at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok have developed their communication skills over time by participating in our TED-Ed Student Talk programs. Additionally, our War Of Words (WOW) debating Club and Model United Nations (MUN) Club activities have helped students overcome their hesitation, social anxiety, and fear of public speaking, all of which aid in their development into impactful communicators.

• Cultivates leadership, responsibility, and initiative-taking

If you closely watch leaders of multinational companies or individuals who have created a legacy in their respective fields of work, you’ll notice a common trait in all of them. They never ditched responsibility or initiative-taking during challenging times.

These traits made them unforgettable personalities, and we want the same for all our students. Hence, we continually encourage our students to participate in various extracurricular activities that give them opportunities to lead. When children take the role of team leader in a club or organise an event, they learn to take ownership of their actions.

They also make decisions that help them meet deadlines, motivate their team members, and take greater accountability for their actions. While several activities can be used to develop these skills, we at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok rely on EMPASSION - Social Service Club. Our students have managed end-to-end campaigns under this program, which brought out their leadership qualities.

• Nurtures creativity and innovative thinking

Creative and innovative thinkers rarely encounter roadblocks on their growth journey because they’ve trained their minds to find out-of-the-box solutions to any problem. Hence, we deeply value these skills and aim to make them an inseparable part of our students’ personalities.

We launched a TINKERING Club/STEAM FUN years ago for the same reason. It was created to foster young innovators, and it has met our expectations. The activities organised in this club help our students develop intrinsic, imaginative, and creative problem-solving. It nurtures an open mind, assisting students to approach challenges without fear of failure.

As they continually experiment with 3D printing, robotics, DIY kits, etc., in this club, they learn to innovate, iterate, and refine ideas. These habits eventually become a part of their personality, fuelling their overall growth.

• Boosts emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-confidence

One of the best parts of extracurricular activities is that they expose children to uncertain situations and outcomes. This is so because, regardless of the effort children put into these activities, they may win or lose and experience joy or challenges. These experiences shape children into highly resilient individuals who can handle setbacks independently.

Their self-confidence and self-belief also receive a boost when they start finishing activities outside academics. It makes them believe that they’re capable in diverse areas. Hence, we at our school regularly organise extracurricular activities that hone these exact skills. We mostly take help of our sports hub to instil these traits as part of our students’ personalities.

This trait is particularly nurtured when children try to understand team members’ feelings, manage disagreements, and learn to regulate their own emotions under pressure. Hence, the more students participate in sports-based extracurricular activities, such as cricket or basketball, the more emotionally intelligent they become.

Conclusion

No doubt academics shape a child’s intellectual capabilities. However, they still need extracurricular activities to form their overall personality. Extracurricular activities can inculcate several life skills in children that academics alone would not have fostered. In fact, we at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, positioned among the top CBSE schools in Gurugram, have seen that right from communicating effectively to leading responsibly, extracurricular activities have the potential to strengthen children’s personalities in unimaginable ways.

When academics and extracurricular activities work together, children don’t just perform better, but they also grow into well-rounded individuals. Hence, as a parent, make it a point that besides focusing on your child’s academic growth, you also encourage your kids to actively participate in extracurricular areas that interest them.