A year later, all that changed for the St Theresa's Convent student when, in Secondary 3, she cut her teeth in the sport of floorball, offered by her school's Sports Education Programme (SEP).

Her passion was ignited and she attended all the training sessions. Along with some St Theresa's teammates, she also plays for Agape, a Division Two floorball club in the national league.

Said Nathania, now in Secondary 4: 'I was a badminton player since Primary 3, but I took up athletics in STC because its badminton team had disbanded.

'I took up floorball as I needed something to do after school hours. I can now gain Co-Curricular Activity points while being committed to a sport I love.'

The B Girls' team, which Nathania is in, were started with SEP's help. Until last August, St Theresa's had only a C Girls' team.

SEP, an initiative of the Singapore Sports Council and Ministry of Education, was set up in 2007 to advocate the importance of sports education, encourage sports participation in schools and increase sporting opportunities for youth.

It will provide schools with a matching grant of up to $10,000 to take up sports programmes from a given list.

Said Leslie Francis, head of physical education at St Theresa's: 'We gathered 22 Sec 3 girls who were inactive in their CCAs or had dropped out, and used the SEP grant to let them try floorball.

'They were keen, attendance was full, and, after six sessions, we built the team. Now, they are active members as they have a sense of belonging competing in the Schools National championships.'

Francis credited SEP as being very useful for 'allowing students to try sports they would never dream of', citing the choir and performing arts members taking up canoeing and rock climbing as examples.

Response has been tremendous: 88 per cent (311 schools) participated at the 2007 launch. Currently, only three schools do not have SEP owing to limited resources.

SEP is also an avenue for students to pick up sports like archery, scuba diving, skating and ultimate frisbee, in addition to traditional CCA sports.

It has proven to be a boon, especially for neighbourhood schools with few CCA sports.

Take, for instance, Henderson Secondary School, where basketball is its sole CCA sport. SEP has allowed its students to take up sports like floorball, silat, kickboxing and inline skating.

The SEP initiative is 'definitely a blessing', said Tse Yiu Fai, the school's head of PE.

'Compared to the elite schools, the students in neighbourhood schools have less exposure to the various sports,' he said. 'With SEP, the students can find a sport they like and continue with it in future.'

The wide variety of SEP sports - some with fancy names like fuzionball, bossaball and gyrokinesis - also helps coax normally languid students to sign up.

Said Damai Secondary's head of PE Tan Heng Loon: 'We offered kickboxing, sports chanbara (a freestyle Japanese combat sport) and hip-hop dancing to the overweight pupils as part of their fitness programme.

'Response has been very positive and they've been asking for more new sports. It's exciting for them to do something other than the usual ball and racket sports.'

valchia@sph.com.sg