Contrasting Attitudes to Risk in Returning to School Sport
It’s not just the weather that is improving for the summer term. Prospects for a long-awaited return to inter-school sport competitions are improving daily. The majority of schools that haven’t yet re-started their programmes are planning to do so after half term: those who are continuing to wait until September are very much the exception now.
However, schools are displaying significantly different levels of ambition, haste and risk tolerance in restoring their programmes. The range of attitudes is wide. Some are confining themselves to summer sports which are more readily distanced, where others are offering a combined programme which includes some legacy activities from the missing winter sports. A minority of schools have a buoyant programme of Netball, Hockey, Rugby and Soccer existing alongside their regular summer sports, and all report considerable pupil and parent support for this belated attempt to address the vacuum of traditional winter activities, especially for senior year groups.
Whilst many schools are now having regular weekend fixtures, the scale of these events is smaller than usual. The big block fixture has not yet returned in earnest, and may not do so this term. Attitudes to the involvement of exam year groups also differ widely: some schools have been comfortable to mix Sixth form year groups to establish the strongest teams and crews, where others are taking no risks with senior sport until the Teacher Assessed Grades have been completed. Others are confining their activity to participating in cup competitions, which typically involve fewer pupils and limited matches.
Some risk management processes are more consistently adopted than others. All schools have been comfortable to travel changed and dispense with the niceties and hospitality that might normally accompany school matches. Protocols for cleaning equipment have become unintrusive, and parent spectators are currently absent, though plans for their return vary. Some schools have increased the extent of their live streaming of matches to meet this frustrated demand.
In other areas, however, schools continue to differ in their interpretation of guidelines, and their appetite for risk. Travel is one of these. Some schools are confining their buses to a single bubble. Others are separating year groups by a few empty rows of seats on the same bus. Still more are depending entirely upon parents to transport children to matches. The majority of schools are restricting the length of their journeys they undertake, and focusing only upon local matches.
“Bubbles” present an additional challenge, and one in which schools vary considerably. Some have found convenient justifications for combining year groups for sports purposes, and have been unable to abandon the habit of Sixth Formers competing as a single unit. Others have interpreted guidance more literally, and keenly protected the integrity of their bubbles. Each constituency is sceptical of the rationale of the other.
It was inevitable that attitudes would differ. It was equally predictable that schools would vary in their enthusiasm to restore school sport, and willingness to test boundaries in order to do so. What is indisputable, however, is the direction of travel. School sport is returning.
And that is very welcome news.