Sport Policy


Rationale
The aim of offering broad participation in sports at High is to nurture the
personal development of our students. Participation in sport is an educational
activity. We want all students to be involved in team sports for the lifelong
physical, psychological, social and personal benefits that such participation
can bring. It is particularly important to encourage students at High to engage in
organised sport because of the initial low levels of measured physical fitness
and motor skills.
High is unique among public schools in its membership of the AAGPS. Members
have mutual obligations to supply facilities, fixtures, officials and depth in
team numbers in multiple sports. In order to fulfil our commitments we need
maximised participation by individuals.
The standard of competition in many GPS sports continues to improve. Physical
and mental preparation for competition is both more intense and of longer duration.
Adequate preparation and regular training are required to maintain and enhance
our competitiveness.
Player satisfaction in sports is important. Commitment to the sports program
by students and parents needs to be maintained and strengthened.
Parents are paying co-payments for their children to participate in sports, and
they would like to see good preparation, organisation and participation,
particularly on Saturdays. They also want competent, qualified coaches running
sports training to enhance player satisfaction.
Incoming Students - Sport Selection
Incoming students can select a sport via the following link:
sbhs.co/nss
By choosing to participate in GPS sport, you will be gaining new skills while creating lasting friendships and memories for life.
Objectives
- To raise the general fitness level of our students.
- To provide an enjoyable and successful sports experience for as many
students as possible.
- To meet our GPS obligations well – by having all teams ready to play
their fixtures.
- To build support for competitive sport among our students and their
parents.
Strategies
- Supply a coach for every team.
- Improve the level of expertise of our coaches.
- Increase the frequency and intensity of our coaching/training sessions.
- Improve the attendance of students at Saturday sports fixtures and at
training sessions.
Actions
- Recruit and/or train qualified coaches for every team or crew
involving students in Years 7-12.
- Where necessary recruit a Coordinator or Lead Coach to develop
skills in the Year 7-12 cohort of competitors.
- Engage all students in sport on Wednesdays or Thursdays as part
of the school curriculum. Exemptions on medical grounds can be applied for
in through the Parent Portal. [See action 15]
- Encourage all students to participate in GPS sports. Once
a student has committed to a GPS sport, full participation in that
sport is expected and monitored with consequences for non-attendance without
an acceptable reason. Full participation means attendance at all scheduled
training sessions, trial matches and competition fixtures. These
expectations and consequences are communicated online to students before
sport selections.
- Aim for maximum attendance at all Saturday fixtures by
recording and monitoring attendance and following up absentees. [See action
15]
- Aim for maximum attendance at the minimum number of
scheduled/school training sessions for the Year and team level by recording
and monitoring attendance at the training sessions and following up
absentees. [See action 12].
- Insist on full participation. In order to meet full
participation requirements, students must attend at least
the specified number of scheduled/school training sessions each week.
- For GPS 1st and 2nd grade students: three scheduled
training sessions per week.
- For Opens teams 3rd – 10th grade: two training sessions
per week
- For Junior teams through Year 10: A and B teams: three training sessions
per week
- For Junior teams through Year 10: C – J teams: two training
sessions per week
-
Training Sessions
- One training session is held on Monday afternoon 3.30 pm - 5.00pm.
- A certified strength and conditioning/speed and agility is
considered to be a training session.
-
A sport training session is usually scheduled for the Senior school
(Years 10-12) on Wednesday afternoons from for the senior school
1:15pm-2:45pm and for the Junior School (Years 7-9) Thursday afternoons from 1:15pm-2:45pm.
-
A standard training session is scheduled for Wednesday afternoons at
3.30 pm-5pm for Juniors (Years 7-9) and Thursday afternoons at 3.30
pm-5pm for Seniors (Years 10-12).
- Coaches decide on the intensity of coaching sessions, but all sessions
must conclude by 5pm.
- Exemptions from some training sessions for
elite athletes may be negotiated with the Principal and Head Teacher Sport
through the proper documentation process. [See action 15]
- Exemptions for students for scheduled
out-of-school hours training is automatic during relevant examination weeks.
- Parents are asked not to schedule after school
activities for their children that conflict with standard, scheduled training
sessions – Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, as well as Friday
mornings for 1st/2nds
-
Variations to standard training days
The bulk
of training for sports should occur on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday
afternoons. Some sports are constrained by availability of specialised
facilities (eg basketball courts, tennis courts, cricket nets or pitches,
swimming pools, rowing sheds or rifle ranges). By arrangement with members
of teams, after avoiding clashes with other activities, and on obtaining
written permission from the Principal and Head Teacher Sport, training sessions may be scheduled at other
times.
- Improve cardiovascular fitness: By regularly testing
students in a 1.6km run as part of the PDHPE program; by recording and
monitoring times run by students; by setting individual targets for
improvement; and by setting cohort goals against state standards.
- Lift player satisfaction: By setting and measuring
individual improvement goals in fitness benchmarks or game-specific skills
and by giving feedback to participants on their progress; by setting and
measuring teamwork targets (eg attack and defence statistics); and by
setting and measuring whole sport targets (eg improve competition standing
by one position or reduce negative point differentials by 25% across all
fixtures). Successful achievement of targets and goals is celebrated.
- Expose students to unfamiliar sports by holding ‘Try’
Days and a Year 7 Rotation Program.
- Promote the benefits of sport and publicise and discuss
the Sports Policy with staff, students and parents.
- Make students accountable. Students are voluntary
members of sports teams but once they have committed to a sport, they must abide
by its requirements or withdraw.
- Once a student has committed to a GPS sport
(ie a sport played by members of GPS schools) they are accountable for their full
participation in that sport. A student is deemed to have made a commitment
to a sport if their name is on the roll once the selection trials for
that sport have been completed.
- Once a student has committed to Athletics, they are committed to attend all Athletic sessions until the GPS Athletics
competition or until they have been deemed no longer part of the competition squad as
selected by the MIC of Athletics. Students may train up to one summer sport
session per week (Tuesday morning) after Week 7 while they are in athletics
season. All training outside of this must be conditioning only (as
determined by the Head Teacher Sport).
- Students are encouraged to keep personal
training logs to record attendance and monitor their own development.
- Department of Education - 'School Attendance
Policy', 2005: 4.6.2 – Specific sports rolls must be marked at the beginning
and conclusion of each sports session.
- Students not meeting full participation
requirements will have penalties imposed on them.
- Lodging and Absences/Exemption
- When students are unable to attend a GPS fixture/training session
notice must be given at least 1 hour before by lodging an Absence Form
through the Parent Portal.
- When notification of the absence cannot be made within this time,
parents/carers will have 48hrs to respond to the absence, by lodging an
Absence Form through the Parent Portal.
- Students are not allowed to lodge an Absence/exemption form.
They can only be lodged by a parent/carer by following the steps below:
- Log onto the Parent Portal
- Locate ‘Report Sport Absence’ under Portal Services.
- Fill in the form. Parents/carers are only required to send extra
documentation to the
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
email if they are lodging a
medical/elite athlete exemption or school business exemption.
- Please note: lodging the following form does not guarantee
approval for an absence/exemption unless it aligns with the sport
policy.
- Note that all absences during school hours 9:05am – 3:15pm
(including Wednesday/Thursday Timetabled Sport 1pm - 3pm), are to be
communicated to the main school office administration through emailing:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
(not to be confused with the
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
email)
- Coaches are expected to mark the roll in Clipboard for their
team/crew at every training session, trial match and GPS fixture
- Penalties for absenteeism/misbehaviour
- Penalties for non-attendance at sport or scheduled training
sessions, without an acceptable reason:
-
First time – Sports detention and warning. This will show up as a
‘Detention' session on Clipboard and must be attended in lieu of any
training.
-
Second time – Sports detention + loss of 50% of Award
Scheme points.
-
Third time – Student removed from GPS roll. All Awards
Scheme points forfeited and further consequences will be set by the
Head Teacher of Sport.
-
MICs in each sport are responsible for recording penalties applied to
students and for making judgements on the Award Scheme points to be
lost. Details must be communicated to the Deputy Principal or delegate
in charge of Award Scheme administration.
- Communicate our Sports Selection Policies fully and
clearly
- Maximum team numbers for particular sports
are recommended to the Principal by the Head Teacher of Sport in
consultation with MICs.
- Published, transparent and consistent
policies for all teams are published in each sport eg training sessions
attended, skill standards reached, comparative measures recorded
- Trials are held where nominations exceed the
spaces available in the sport
- At the change of season, trials must be held
promptly to identify unsuccessful students, thus allowing them time to
change sports and allowing coaches adequate time to prepare their teams.
- Organise our activities to help students achieve balance
in their lives Many students are engaged in a variety of school activities.
Our policy is to facilitate the activities of these all-rounders. Times have
been allocated for co-curricular activities. They have priority and MICs and
sports coaches must respect them. eg
Tuesday
afternoons – cadet parades.
Tuesday and Thursday (mornings) - Year 8
Languages.
Monday to Friday (mornings) - Music ensembles
Monday & Wednesday (mornings) - Extension 2
Mathematics
MICs are at liberty to negotiate with their teams to find
suitable morning timeslots but must not:
- Pressure any individual student into
withdrawing from an activity to attend a morning training session.
- Imply that they are standing in the way of what
all the others in the team want to do.
- Indicate directly or indirectly that
attendance at such a session will be a part of any selection policy for a
team.
Coaches who make arrangements for morning training times must inform the Principal and Head Teacher Sport of the arrangements – who is involved, when they will happen and where such training sessions will occur.
- MICs must first obtain approval from both Head Teacher Sport and
Principal to make arrangements for training times outside of the scheduled
times outlined in the sport policy.
- Expand our sports
offerings. Our first priority is to meet our commitments to honour our AAGPS
membership. We also want to offer educative, healthy and active sporting
activities. From time to time, additional sports will be offered to a
limited number of students on a cost recovery basis.
-
The role of Clipboard
-
Organise our activities so that training sessions/fixtures are
visible and the expectations per session are stated and clear.
-
Students can access Clipboard through logging onto their Student Portal
and clicking on the ‘My Extracurricular’ Tab.
-
Parents/carers can access Clipboard through logging onto their Parent
Portal and clicking on the ‘Student Extracurricular Calendar’ Tab.
-
Every session is hyperlinked and contains locations, bus information,
session notes and times so that students can be well informed when their
sessions are and how they are organised.
-
Behaviour Expectations
- Students play their
part in being able to support their team, school and community by aligning
themselves with the school values of ‘Dedication’, ‘Integrity’, ‘Respect’
and ‘Compassion’.
- Students show Dedication in
sport by being active and participating in their sport/training to the best
of their abilities.
- Students show Integrity
in sport by placing a high value on effort and being accountable for their
attendance, attitude and necessary sport protocols.
- Students show Respect in sport by caring for their teammates, equipment,
opponents and coaches.
- Students show
Compassion in sport by acknowledging and excepting their mistakes and
recognising the efforts of others.
- Students
following these expectations are celebrated at SBHS through their
sportsmanship and valour. Students who do not follow these expectations will
be reminded of their value through a sport detention and/or further
consequences.
Concussion Policy
SBHS adheres to a 19 day return to play policy post-concussion.
A player who has suffered an injury that potentially can
cause concussion should be assessed on three occasions following this
injury;
- At the time of injury (i.e. immediately
following a trauma)
- 3 hours following the injury (on the day of
injury)
- At 36 to 48 hours after the injury, after 2
sleeps
The diagnosis of concussion can be made at any point during this
time-frame, but a minimum of two sleeps (following the incident) must be
observed before any player can be assessed to exclude concussion,
hence NO player can be cleared in a time frame less than this.
Steps to be followed by an MIC:
- Suspected concussion by a first aid onsite,
student takes no further part in the game or training and completes steps
1-3
- If student was concussed they must be given
clearance to resume light training (no possible contact)
- After day 18 students must be given clearance to resume full training
and games by a medical professional