Yesterday afternoon, Director General Tony Cook sent an email to all Department of Education staff around the rebooting of school sport. This email included a link to selection of Resources, on the QSS website.
In Related links, you will find the revised calendar (with a few minor issues to resolve) as well a set of FAQs for the reboot of school sport in Queensland.
Some points to note;
· It was a directive of Central Office to include events involving 16-19yrs age groups (Yr 11&12 students). I am fully aware of the challenges this may present.
· Track & Field State Championships CANCELLED. This will impact every school in our Region. The State Championships were originally scheduled for October (18 weeks away). There is all likelihood that COVID restrictions could be lifted by this time. However there was concern around the timing of the preceding events such as school, District and Regional carnivals and whether they could meet the COVID requirements in place at that time. As there is no State Championship there is no need to hold a Northern Regional Trial. Both the 10-12yrs and 13-19yrs Track & Field Regional trials are large scale events demanding a large number of resources. The Townsville Sports Reserve is schedule to close on October 1, thus ruling out the possibility of holding trials in Term 4. If individual Districts wanted to hold District Trials that would become a District based decision.
· Now the decision to cancel State Track & Field has been made, this gives schools freedom to schedule their own school sport carnival at a time that suits their school, without the pressure of needing to meet a deadline for a carnival at the next level.
· When schools hold their own athletics sports day is a school based decision, schools must be aware of the existing COVID protocols that are in place at that time. Continually referring to the links above will provide you with this information.
The release of this calendar will trigger a series of processes from this office.
· For the events where Northern Teams have been selected – Squash, Water Polo, Netball, Hockey & Volleyball, there will be communication with both players and officials regarding their availability/desire to attend the event in its new time slot.
· Drafting a calendar for the Regional trials that are still required – Basketball (15), Basketball (12), Softball (12), Netball (12), Hockey (12), Cricket (12), Cricket (15) – we would aim to have this calendar finalised before the end of this Term. This will be done in consultation with all Districts.
· There will be measures put in place for all of these events to ensure they meet the existing COVID guidelines.