Radford Stay-at-Home Sports Program
By Megan Fritsch, Head of Sport
As the College transitions to remote learning in line with the current ACT Government lockdown restrictions, the Radford Sports Department has created the Stay-at-Home Sports Program. The Program aims to keep students from Kindergarten to Year 12 engaged with their winter co-curricular sport and physical activity and assist with the transition to summer pre-season training.
The Sports Department acknowledges that there has been significant disruption to the winter sport seasons and has sought to develop a program that will provide students with the physical and mental benefits associated with sports participation and physical activity.
Stay-at-Home Sport focuses on:
• Student wellbeing by helping with motivation to do at least 30mins of activity a day
• School spirit, with the opportunity to achieve house points
• Connectedness – live online sessions with Radford Sports Program Managers (SPMs) for encouragement and skill work to promote teamwork and self-improvement.
Working with our talented Radford SPMs, Stay-at-Home Sport draws on their expertise and experience, and has resulted in a range of sessions and activities that will be on offer to continue to support your child’s (the student-athlete) growth in their chosen sport. Each session has been developed with age, skill acquisition and physical activity in mind, ensuring there are meaningful benefits and outcomes to each session.
Stay-at-Home Sport is an opt-in program, that can be used to complement the student-athlete's participation in HPE lessons, and to fill the void left by the cancellation / postponement of face-to-face training and games.
Having launched on Monday, 23 August (Monday Week 6), Stay-at-Home Sport will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. MS Teams has been selected as the preferred method of delivery as it aligns with the method of online learning currently used by Radford students. Students will be invited to join the Stay-at-Home Sports Program Team, which includes the following sport-specific channels:
• General
• Basketball
• Cricket
• FMS (Kindergarten–Year 3)
• Football
• Grass Running
• Netball
• Rowing
• Strength and Conditioning (S&C).
In addition to the sport-specific channels, the Team also includes two competition channels:
• Best Trick Shot Competition
• Little Athletics Primary School Virtual Challenge.
Through each of the MS Teams channels, sessions will be uploaded for your student-athlete to engage with. For sports and physical activities that do not have a specified channel, students are welcome to join the Strength & Conditioning, Grass Running, competition channels or even try a new sport.
Content will be delivered via the following methods across the Teams channels:
• Live Team Meetings (managed by the session facilitator / Sports Program Manager)
• Pre-recorded videos
• Written programs and images
• Third party apps (coming soon)
Live sessions
We ask that student-athletes sign in promptly, ready to begin the session at the specified start time. When joining a live session, students should be wearing their PE uniform or House shirt and should have their cameras on. For sessions that are pre-recorded or written, student-athletes are free to work through these in their own time.
Exercising safely while at home
Before your child begins any of the sessions presented in Stay-at-Home Sport, we first ask that you and your child read through the Physical Activity at Home Checklist and ensure that your child can complete the activities in a safe space. A copy of the checklist can be found here and also accessed through the Teams channel.
In addition to the sessions delivered in the Microsoft Team, the Sports Department is working on releasing some third-party app-based resources. These apps have been selected by the Sports Department as age-appropriate options for further skill and fitness development. Further information will be sent to parents and caregivers soon.
Appropriate behaviour
For the duration of Stay-at-Home Sport, it is expected that all Radford student-athletes follow the expectations set out in the Radford College ICT policy. Student-athletes are expected to always behave appropriately and should demonstrate good online etiquette. Should students behave inappropriately, they will be removed from the Team and the incident will be reported to the respective Head of Year or the Deputy Head of Junior School. Standard school consequences will apply to students who breach the ICT policy.
The Radford Sports Department is excited to launch the Stay-at-Home Sports Program and are confident that this platform will be a beneficial way for students to stay physically active throughout this period of remote learning.
Rest assured, the Radford Sports Department will continue to prepare and plan for the 2021/22 Summer Sports Season. Please do not hesitate to contact the Radford Sports Department if you have any questions.