Bring sport back into schools

It is time to stop the erosion of organised school sport, writes Andrew Moore

ONE thing I learned from former premier Will Hodgman, after completing the Tasmanian Leaders Program in 2009, was that governments need great ideas, are open to suggestions and will support innovation grounded in research that benefits Tasmania and our community.

So Jeremy Rockliff, Nic Street and Roger Jaensch, a call to arms: “It’s time to return sport to the school setting.”

On the back of increased representation in national sporting competitions, (the JackJumpers, the Tridents, the Tassie Tigers Hockey One teams, our male and female cricketers, the Echidnas, investment from government in bringing the Collingwood Magpies and Western United to play games in Tassie and, of course, 10 of 11 steps navigated on the road to an AFL licence for Tassie) our government has been proactive in providing a platform for the next generation of Tasmanians to perform and participate on the national stage.

If our kids can’t see it, they can’t be it – so well done on step one completed.

Without a high-performance platform, our brightest and best young athletes move to the mainland so they can access state-of-the-art training facilities, the best coaches and participate in a high intensity environment. Ariarne Titmus,

Nathaniel Atkinson, basketballers, netballers and currently more than 40 Aussie rules players make up a long list of athletes and some families who have relocated to the mainland.

Step two under way with the commitment of $65m for a highperformance centre, as part of the Macquarie Point stadium bid.

If the Tassie Tigers did not play in the Sheffield Shield cricket competition, I doubt Tim Paine would have ascended to the national cricket captaincy or Eddie Ockenden would have played 400 games of hockey and captained the Kookaburras. Together with our state sporting organisations, government has taken some steps, the next step, step three, is to return sport to the school setting.

The world has changed, the way we work, the way we move, the way we think, and education is no different. What we have seen in schools over the past 25 years, is the rise and rise of a crowded curriculum, the erosion of organised school sport, the increase in compliance and a reduction in resources (HPE teachers) to encourage kids to be active. Many schools have literacy and numeracy coaches yet poorly designed and resourced daily HPE routines, little or no school sport, decreased budgets, a disconnect in system priorities and a nightmare paper trail of forms and risk matrixes that teachers need to navigate if, heaven forbid, students venture out of the classroom and onto the playing field. This cannot be allowed to continue, given the rise in obesity and importance we now place on wellbeing, post Covid-19.

One solution is for government to consider funding 60 Playing Field/ Play & Connect ambassadors, young people in years 11 and 12, who can undertake a Cert III school-based traineeship to manage the additional in-school workload, creating opportunities for students to engage and enjoy sporting opportunities in the school setting.

I suggested this model in 2013 as a principal, only to be told by the bureaucracy, “that while a great idea, we are setting our young people up to fail as the pathways and jobs into sport are not there”. So, given the world has changed, we now have representation in a number of national sporting competitions and commercial sporting franchises based in the state, let’s revisit this concept and return sport to the school setting!

Play & Connect ambassadors would work between one-to-two days in selected schools, while studying at college, to work with state sporting organisations and schools’ staff, to create, design and deliver sporting opportunities in the school setting that would include daily HPE, intraschool activities, visits from state sporting organisations and interschool competition. Importantly, student voices would empower and encourage young people to be involved in the management, promotion, operation, decisionmaking and delivery process.

To assist schools in shifting and enhancing school sport as a strategy to improve wellbeing and physical literacy, partnering with commercial sporting franchises currently supported by government and collaborating with state sporting organisations, fosters partnerships with local community sporting clubs. Add value by harnessing the Department of Education children and young people, liaise with Reclink and School Sport Tasmania and invite them all to be part of an advisory group. This group would provide the mentoring, guidance and co-ordination of the strategy.

By thinking differently about a whole of community approach, we

can support existing platforms that encourage participation like ‘Ticket to Play’, government-funded teams in national sporting competitions.

Additional benefits would include improved connections for grassroots clubs, pathways between schools and clubs, increased participation and engagement of children and young people in physical activity and sport and, importantly, return sport to the school setting so that a balance between academic and sport creates the conditions for a holistic, wellrounded education system in Tasmania.

Educational transformation was achieved in Hobart’s northern suburbs and in Burnie during the past 15 years. Encouraged by the notion of ‘better’, new schools are better for students, better for teachers, better for families and better for the community. Let’s apply the same thinking to school sport and physical literacy and return sport to the school setting, with a supported and networked strategy. Tasmania, we can do this!

Andrew Moore is a former school principal and the inaugural (20182022) program manager for Clubs Tasmania, a government-funded body that advocates for greater investment in the community club sector.

If our kids can’t see it, they can’t be it

ANDREW MOORE