Student Sport Update - From SSM & SMSU
We hope you are staying well as we approach the holiday period. We wanted to give one final update, focusing on the plans for student sport following the Christmas closure.
As you will have no doubt seen, all London boroughs have recently been upgraded to Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions. Should we remain in this Tier into the new year, outdoor sport will be able to continue in line with NGB guidance, however there is further guidance for certain sports which should aim to minimise the amount of contact that occurs in training and matches. To this point we have worked closely with clubs to ensure this guidance is understood and is included appropriately within risk assessments, and we will continue to do so to ensure that the latest guidelines are understood before returning to any activity.
For indoor clubs, adults can now only play with members of their household or support bubble, and as previously, this makes delivering indoor student club activity operationally impossible to facilitate whilst we remain under these restrictions.
Our intention is to restart outdoor club training sessions as soon as we can in the new year, however we will only be able to confirm specific plans once further information has been released from both the government and the wider University around students returning to campus, further coronavirus restrictions etc.
For those clubs who are able to train under current restrictions, we are planning to make club memberships available for purchase as soon as we can in the new year, and we are planning to split membership fees into two instalments. The first instalment will grant students access to club training sessions and will contribute to essential costs such as affiliation fees and insurance. This fee will be set at a similar level to the cost we had previously planned for semester one.
Should it be required, the second instalment will grant students access to BUCS competitions and will cover all of the essential club running costs, for example transport and referees. Due to the wider national circumstances, there is still uncertainty around what the competition programme will look like and we anticipate this will become clearer in the new year. As we learn more about this, we will be able to provide further details about what the competition programme looks like, and therefore the plans for this second instalment.
While a return to training is our main focus, we have received further communication from BUCS to confirm that all league fixtures have been moved back by at least three weeks and will now start no earlier than 17th February and are due to end on 31st March. The outdoor cricket competition is still provisionally scheduled for term 3, as it has been in previous years.
We are as determined as ever to ensure that as much student sporting activity takes place as possible, and we will continue to put plans in place that will allow students to take part in sport and physical activity in a safe manner.
We know how hard this academic year has been so far and we wanted to thank all of our club committee members for their efforts and support in adapting to the circumstances as much as possible. Despite the challenges, there has still been a lot of great work going on within clubs to support the student body and we greatly appreciate the work you are doing.
We hope you have a safe and relaxing holiday period and look forward to seeing you again in the new year!
Sport St Mary’s & St Mary’s Students’ Union.
