News
Positional Statement on the UK School Games
Question: When is a Schools’ event not a Schools’ event?
Answer: When it is the UK SCHOOL Games
This is not a joke but Scottish Schools Swimming Association feel that they have a duty to explain why they have withdrawn support for the UK School Games.
There are actually a number of reasons and we will try to explain our views on them.
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First of all the timing is completely unsuitably for schools, although we do appreciate that other sports have different considerations, and not all sports are selecting participants who are still at school.
The problem that we have as an association is that we find it difficult to staff the games because, if we take the 2007 event as an example, most schools in Scotland were back for just three days when we were asking staff to take the next three days off school. Securing staff release was difficult and we are not saying that the schools were uncooperative but the staff themselves felt that they had a professional duty to be in school at such a critical time in the school year.
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2. |
We as an association feel that while the principle of the UK School Games is good the reality is that it is not meeting one of its major objectives of developing athletes for the 2012 Olympic Games. Again this comes down to the timing of the Games. The top young swimmers in the UK will have peaked for the National Championships in August and the only time they would have had a chance to holiday with their family is the two weeks prior to the Games. This was reflected, certainly in the swimming results from Coventry. We do however concede that it was an enjoyable experience for the swimmers.
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3. |
Recognition of the Schools is another problem we encountered. The first year of the event in Glasgow the organisers refused to communicate with schools who had pupils or staff involved. We as an Association were left to do this less than three weeks prior to the event. This year we did it from the outset but the organisers refused to recognise the schools in the programme.
This point was raised at a meeting of the sports represented at the games, sportscotland and the Youth Sport Trust and this is where the question at the beginning of this article arose as we were told that the schools concerned would not be included in the programme as it was NOT a schools event. The sports at the meeting were confused at this comment but were told it is a school AGE event.
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4. |
The final point we will make, although there are others, is the money being spent on the event. Over the six or seven years that the event will take place several million pounds are being spent. We as an association do not think the best use is being made of this money and feel it could have been better spent on developing potential for the Olympic Games in 2012. Not necessarily through schools. The only development that has occurred is that of the young volunteers who will be required for 2012, but this again could have been organised differently. As far as we are concerned there were some broken promises as regards financial assistance but this is now in the past.
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The next question is what happens now?
As from 2008 the selection and organisation of the two Scottish teams will be undertaken by Scottish Swimming and we wish them well in their task.
It should also be noted that in no way are the comments above related in any way to Scottish Swimming. Our involvement from the start was via British Swimming and if anything Scottish Swimming were less aware than we were of what was happening with regard to the Games.
Many of the executive members of the Schools Swimming Association were very reluctant to withdraw support for the UK School Games but for the reasons above felt that they were left with no choice.
Solicitors are delighted to support Scottish Schools Swimming
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