Fierce House Spirit at the Prep House Cross Country

Mr Robert Egan, Prep Sportsmaster

WHILST we have spent the last few months keeping our distance, the importance of exercise for both physical and mental wellbeing has never been more abundantly clear to the HPE team.

As we press the restart button on national, community and school sport competitions, it is a time to reflect on the journey we have all undertaken during the past few months. With COVID-19 influencing so much of our lives, during this time it has to draw us together and closer to our core values. The sense of community has never been stronger, the shared experience between boys, parents and colleagues has seen the bond between us all flourish into something to really appreciate. Similar to a sports tour, or a team’s season together, there was a sense of ‘Team TSS’ that brought the School together; which was no more evident than the boys’ return to school with their beaming smiles. These were reflected in the teachers faces looking back at them. A few months ago the challenge was set, as news of distance learning was released. There was a huddle in the HPE office, socially distanced I might add, discussing the collective journey ahead. As our IT department took a deserved centre stage, initial plans were set for the way HPE and sport would meet this challenge head-on. Then came the investment of extra evenings, weekends and holiday time to share advice and experience through phone calls and webinars in order to bring this exciting distance learning module to life. The plan was simple, teach in accordance to the timetable, in real time and add more… Now to create and innovate.

When thinking of our boys physical activity, COVID-19 has handed us some hurdles to overcome, including the reduction of a wide range of sports on offer externally, limiting the environment activities can take place in, removing the context for activities like

community sport, play time and face-to-face lessons etc. This all leant towards a more sedentary lifestyle and increased screen time.

During this time the HPE team assumed added responsibility for helping boys overcome these hurdles. We collaborated and created over 130 sessions suitable for distance learning, across a variety of topics encapsulating everything from health, fitness to skill progression. These included HIT workouts, running, football, rugby, yoga, dance, theoretical areas and more. The scope of the department changed with new additions to the program offering plenty for the boys to get their teeth into while away from the school campus. The 11am Daily Movement Sessions were split into three streams, catering separately for the lower, middle and upper years at Prep. These sessions allowed for age and ability appropriate workouts to really extend our boys and their fitness. Although this added an additional daily lesson for each of our HPE staff, this was willingly undertaken during their lunch periods to facilitate a daily 30 minutes of movement for all of our boys. Traditional core skills and HPE lessons did not miss a beat, continuing throughout this period, covering the key areas of curriculum focus for the term. Our GPS Sports offered sport specific sessions via the live stream link or Big Blue Button, providing continuity in training during this period. These live sessions were complemented with numerous skill development videos for ‘at home’ practice across a variety of sporting areas.

Coaches Corner kicked off, providing training advice and support to boys away from school. This program covered a wide variety of topics from goal setting to skill acquisition support. Talk SportS, a new offering, launched as a webinar series aimed at our older Prep years. These webinars, delivered by a number of experts and guest speakers, gave an insight into the elite athlete world in relation to a number of our MENS REMAP topics, in particular sleep, nutrition, training and mindfulness. Talk SportS provided the boys with useful tips of how to improve their health and also their performance. One of the real positives of our online BBB platform was its interactive nature, allowed us to maintain the connectivity and social bond between and with our boys. There has been plenty of time for learning, moving and perhaps most importantly enjoyment. Welcoming anything from 20 to 60 boys per session in to a virtual classroom to train, maintain and improve was certainly something gratifying and motivating as an educator. Engagement in competition against our previous best continued, as well as the challenge the boys have against one another. There is nothing like a bit of healthy competition to motivate you and that was no more apparent then in our fitness, skill and fun challenges which kept us all busy.

That being said, the HPE team were determined Term Two wasn’t going to finish without something a bit special, which came in the form of our cross-country carnival. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, planning and implementation of this event was a larger task then usual. There were adjustments aplenty to the timing, running order, recording, viewing and a lot more to consider, but nothing was going to stand in the way of our annual inter-house carnival. The HPE team undertook extra evening and weekend COVID-19 planning and training, the culmination of which saw two superb days of running on the oval with every boy at the Prep School scoring points for their House. Congratulations to all the boys for their efforts, it’s amazing to see the depth of our running talent. From the first few to cross the line to the last, there were battles for placing, with healthy fierce House spirit.

We certainly made headlines with an article published in the Gold Coast Bulletin.

There is nothing like tradition and a good comeback. I would like to finish by thanking the whole of the HPE team for the professionalism and efforts over this period, TSS are stronger together. The past few months have been a chance to approach sport from a different angle, provide additional opportunities in other sporting areas, challenge ourselves in the online flexible learning space, whilst still providing high-quality education. This journey has broadened our horizons and will certainly enrich our boys learning going forward.