Soccer and studying

Today is Friday, next week from Tuesday we’ll have end-of-term-tests. But on Sunday my soccer team has to play a match from one o’clock. That’s why they have been training hard this week. This leaves us with the problem that they have very little time to study for the test. And even when they have some free time, they’ll be exhausted from training sessions. So, I decided that they are going to study after soccer practice as a team in the classroom. They bring their textbooks and are free to study any subject they want to. On normal week days they study from seven P.M. until eight P.M. This is because school rules state that students have to leave school property by eight o’clock. It’s not very long, just one hour but if they one of the soccer team members fails a subject they have to come to after school classes for a week and can therefore not come to soccer practice. This is not good for the team because they can’t practice soccer together…

Today however, we are going to break this rule a bit and study until nine o’clock. This is also because tomorrow will be a day off so they can sleep as long as they want. Hopefully they’ll study some more tomorrow. There are lots of first graders in the soccer team and this will be their first term test. They do not know how difficult or easy it is so I wish they over-prepare rather than be surprised when the test turns out to be extremely difficult. I know I can’t force stuff into their heads but am worried about their performance.

I am just an English teacher, managing the school soccer club is an appointed job but is officially volunteer work. It feels that most of the soccer team members have yet to realize this. And especially here now, I stay with them to make sure they study and fall asleep or start chatting.