Bay of Plenty Secondary School sanctioned events in Term 1 2022 will be restricted to fully vaccinated participants, aged 12 and over. Where practical, this mandate extends to spectators attending also.

This decision was made following extensive consultation between Sport Bay of Plenty and the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Principal Management Group.

The decision will be reviewed continuously taking into account the latest Government advice and best practice guidance from Sport New Zealand and School Sport New Zealand.

Key points that were considered included:

• Bay of Plenty region being split across “Orange” and Red” Covid Protection Framework settings.
• If BOPSS sanctioned events were not vaccination only sites, including participants and spectators, under the Covid Protection Framework all Term One events would be cancelled as per Sport New Zealand’s guidance for events.
• Inability to hold BOPSS sanctioned events at key venues as stakeholders announce Covid Vaccine Certificates on entry policies.
• School Sport New Zealand update of their sanctioned events requiring participants and spectators to be vaccinated.

Thank you all for your understanding of this difficult decision and please be assured it wasn’t taken lightly. For now, we need to set our sights on minimising the impact upon our students, and the best way to do that is to utilise solutions that enable students to continue to be physically active whilst mitigating further risk across our wider community.