Please see the email below and attached letter from Mike Summerell, CEO School Sport New Zealand regarding the cancellation of all events sanctioned by NZSS including the Condor 7’s, NZSS Athletics Champs, NZ Touch Championships, NZSS Gillette Cup and Gillette Venus Cup.

Tena koutou katoa,

In what is still uncertain times for education, it is great to see some Auckland schools opening today for senior students.

The board of School Sport NZ met over the weekend to discuss events scheduled in Term 4, 2021 on the sanctioned calendar, guided by the following:

Background

The current picture for school sport is still uncertain. Mandates within the education sector are yet to be interpreted as they pertain to school sport, particularly from the perspective of participation in large school sport events for vaccinated and un-vaccinated students.

Sport NZ are set to release their guidance to the sector later this week.

The current alert level system is set to be replaced with a traffic light system once each DHB moves to a 90% fully vaccinated target, set to be reviewed 29th November.

As such the current max gathering limits for sport, both indoors and outdoors is 100, which impacts greatly on their viability.

Update

There are a number of events scheduled to take place this term. Junior Tournament week will take place 22nd – 26th November involving 12 events for Yr 9 and 10 students. These are a mix of events ranging from regional offerings to island-based offerings (eg NI Badminton Cup). At the end of the current exam period, we also have a number of very large national events (NZSS Condors 7s, NZSS Athletics Champs, NZSS Touch Championships, NZSS Gillette & Venus Cup).

We continue to work closely with all event providers to get a full understanding of their thoughts, and ensure they are receiving the education context to the decisions that must be made.

Considerations

The workload and stress on schools is considerable.

Senior students have missed curriculum time and we are heading into NCEA examination period.

Schools are working their way through new mandates from MOE including compulsory vaccinations for staff and the knock-on effect of this through the school system.

Providing clarity is preferable for Schools where possible.

As such the board of School Sport NZ has determined to cancel all remaining events on its calendar for Term 4 2021

Please see the attached PDF