Wealden Times | WT225 | Jan & Feb 2021| Education supplement inside

Education Supplement sponsored by
The Right Foot
After a year of home schooling and social distancing,
sport represents a unique challenge. How will we get
up and running with a new-normal after lockdown?
As the winner of the Sporting
Achievement award in the 2020
Independent Schools of the Year
Awards, Hurstpierpoint College set
a great example of how to resume
sport in schools after lockdown.
Director of Sport, Rob Kift tells us
what measures they put in place after
returning from the last lockdown.
How did you encourage the school
to stay as active as possible?
This has always been our intention.
Before the pandemic our programme
sought to engage every student both in
terms of participation and performance.
After the first lockdown, we made it a
priority for our pupils to be outside in
the fresh air. We had to be creative with
what we offered and how we utilised
our facilities to their best advantage,
for example we were playing cricket
throughout the winter months using
our new bank of outdoor cricket nets,
which all of the students really enjoyed.
How did you keep up a sporting routine?
This was a real challenge, but we have
very good facilities and a passionate team
of coaches who were very creative and
adaptable. The requirement for pupils to
be in year group bubbles added to the
problem but we overcame this with the
introduction of temporary facilities such
as a golf driving range and a marquee
to house aerobics and spin classes.
“Most pupils have mobile
phones so we urge them
to aim for 10,000 steps
as a daily target.”
Is there anything else you had to
do differently?
Social distancing and sanitising
equipment were two obvious
adaptations last year and we swiftly
established a thorough routine to
deliver sport in a Covid-safe way.
We scheduled weekly meetings to
review our provision, often centred
around new government advice and
national governing body regulations.
Were you able to play matches
against other schools last year?
We didn’t play fixtures against other
schools, but we remain optimistic
that we will again at some point
this year. Although we could have
potentially played some sporting
fixtures last year, the sentiment
was to try to keep the school
functioning in as safe an environment
as possible. We organised more
house competitions and intramural
fixtures, which were received most
enthusiastically by the pupils.
How did the pupils adapt
to the changes?
To their credit, our pupils adapted
very quickly to the ‘new-normal’, but
inevitably they will need reminding
of our in-house rules around
social distancing, washing hands
and the like once they’re allowed
back together. As a department
we have been keen to liaise very
closely with our parent body and
encourage them to reinforce our
stance on the importance of physical
activity. We have asked the pupils
to show resilience in the inclement
weather and to keep their activity
levels up. Most pupils have mobile
phones so we urge them to aim
for 10,000 steps as a daily target.
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