Confusion reigns over cancelled GPS sport
Sydney’s top private schools are hopeful of reviving their rugby, soccer and athletics seasons after their headmasters meet with the state’s chief health officer on Monday.
NSW
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Sydney’s top private schools are hopeful of reviving their rugby, soccer and athletics seasons after their headmasters meet with the state’s chief health officer on Monday.
Private school heads claim a double standard has benched their student athletes while public school kids are free to play sport this weekend.
The government this week ruled Sydney schools could not travel outside their zones to play inter-school sport but have relied on zones set by the Department of Education that were not drawn with non-government schools in mind. It has forced the cancellation of private and Catholic school sporting competitions.
Based on the public school zones, Asquith Boys High School in Sydney’s northwest is free to play schools as far as 35km away — such as Randwick Boys High School — but private schools St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill cannot play St Ignatius Riverview just 5km away.
The issue had been quietly bubbling along all week, with Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney writing to NSW’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, while The King’s School headmaster Tony George has led the lobbying of Sports Minister Geoff Lee.
“Restricting inter-school sport between Catholic schools by applying DoE school zones is unnecessarily restrictive and puts some of our schools at a relative disadvantage,” Mr McInerney wrote in a letter to Dr Chant.
“The zones were not designed for application to non-government schools and as a result, anomalies arise.”
The matter came to a head yesterday morning when Mr Lee wrongly assured 2GB’s breakfast radio presenter Ben Fordham that schools in the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of NSW (AAGPS) — such as The King’s School, The Scots College and Shore — could resume their winter program.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell had earlier appeared on the program, where she quashed any suggestion non-government inter-school sport competitions could resume.
“We need to make sure we’re limiting risk so we don’t have HSC exams interrupted by COVID-19,” she said.
Mr Lee wrongly assumed non-government schools could run their competition within the Sydney basin, confusing them with community sport which is allowed to compete in their regions.
A snap meeting between Dr Chant and the heads of private and Catholic schools has been set down for Monday, where the non-government schools will argue they have been disadvantaged.
Schools in the GPS will not commence their planned shortened five-round season today but are confident they can still manage with one round held mid-week and four more Saturdays until the holidays, provided Dr Chant gives them the green light.