Pupils try (social) distance running
IT’S a leader in education but now The Southport School has broken new ground with what is believed to be one of Australia’s, if not the world’s, first post-COVID-19 community sports events.
On Tuesday, almost 300 TSS Preparatory students took part in a cross-country carnival, the first school sporting event since the swimming carnival in February.
Four houses went head to head as students were seeded into groups of 20 to comply with social distancing regulations as their friends cheered them on from vantage points around the course.
After welcoming students back earlier this term following about six weeks of at-home, online learning, head of preparatory school Jeff Symms said the event was crucial to combat inactivity and encourage physical wellbeing.
“School spirit is a big part of community so we’ve been looking at ways, now that everyone is back at school, to encourage that culture,” he said.
“We think we’ve come up with a good way to stage an event as well as keeping safe.
“If we could manage it, we didn’t want to keep telling the boys that it had been cancelled and put off.
“They are big events in children’s lives and we were pretty excited to make it happen. It’s been a long few months of inactivity and the boys are so excited to get back together again and have some healthy competition.”
While the socially distanced race is thought to be the first post-COVID-19 event of its kind on the Gold Coast, Symms said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other competitions popping up as restrictions ease.
“I’m not aware whether we are the world’s first but I think a lot of schools will be looking at how to start running events again as restrictions ease,” he said. “Cross-country is a good event for social distancing.”