It’s an Olympic sport and was the original Paralympics sport, now archery is joining the sports on offer at The Forest High School.

Head Teacher PDHPE at The Forest High, Genevieve Nestor, said the school was introducing archery as part of its outdoor education program.

“Archery teaches focused targeting skills that you may not get in other sports, but it also teaches resilience,” she said.

“They won't get the bullseye the first time, so they’ll need to work on their skills and change their techniques to hit the target.”

The concentration skills required to succeed in archery can also have positive flow-on effects in the classroom, as students apply the same focus to their schoolwork.

Year 12 student Ethan Fairbairn said the accuracy component of archery was what appealed to him.

“I feel like you learn a lot of like how to perform better and be more accurate,” he said.

Archery also appeals to students as an alternative to team or ball sports.

“Kids that don’t like sport warm to archery pretty quickly as it’s something that they can do,” Ms Nestor said.

Archery is practiced in many NSW public schools, with Chatswood and Sydney Girls high schools both offering the sport for many years.

Across all three schools, the sport is supported by Sydney Archery’s Simon O’Connor, who provides the equipment, training and coaching.

Mr O’Connor said archery appealed to students of all ages and abilities, including neurodivergent students and students in wheelchairs.

“As archery is not really a team sport, they can approach it differently and not interfere with anyone else. It also means they get to be involved in a sporting activity,” he said.

Archery is also considered a relatively low-risk sport.

“It’s actually a very safe sport because of all the different safety precautions that are required,” Ms Nestor said.

“This has meant we’ve had a very positive response from parents and have more students participating than we anticipated.”