Report on GLRU Meeting with Youth Schools

On Saturday, 16 January 2010, the GLRU Development Department had a meeting with the Primary Youth Schools and on 23 January it was the turn of the High Schools that are going to participate in the Union’s development activities during 2010. A landmark was reached when the Gauteng Department of Education [GDE] send a senior official, Ms. Peta Kaplan to the meeting.

Here are some of the salient points that Ms. Kaplan discussed with the educators in the meeting:

• The GDE is very happy to hear that the GLRU is ready to play rugby along the political boundaries and no longer going to create their own demarcations
• Rugby is one of the national government’s priority sport codes and should form an integral part of the school sport programme
• The GDE policy is that all schools should have an extra-curricular policy which will be used to govern these activities at the school
• In addition to the policy schools are required to have an extra-curricular programme which indicates what sporing code is played / coached on a specific day of the week as well as the time it will happen
• Each school should have a rugby committee as part of the school sport committee
• The SGB & SMT [school management team]of each individual school is responsible for deciding the policy of the school and not the Principal or a group of individual educators
• The SMT & SGB should include rugby in their sport budget
• The GLRU is welcome to make use of the GDE structures to communicate our rugby ‘gospel’
• GDE Sport Officers are available to assist the GLRU with the coordination of activities
• Schools are encouraged to include a rugby committee in the cluster, district & regional committees
• Committees should submit their fixtures to the municipality, in the case of schools without playing facilities. Municipalities are not supposed to charge schools for the use of municipal facilities
• SSMPP schools are obliged to participate in the activities offered by the GLRU because they have already received equipment from the Department
• The GDE, LIONS, BULLS & FALCONS are in the process of drawing up a coordinated & unified activity plan for all schools in the province to ensure uniformity in our approach to rugby

The GDE approach to sport is as follows:

Foundation Phase: Grades 1 – 3 = 6 – 9 yr olds

Skills development
Play for fun
Festival in nature

Played during school time as part of physical education.

Intermediate phase: Grades 4 – 6 = 10 – 12 yr olds

Modified games
Interschool leagues
Festival in nature

Senior Primary & Secondary school phase: Grades 7 – 12= 13 – 18 yr olds:

Competitive sport
Inter school leagues
Regional leagues
Provincial leagues

Schools and federations encouraged to adopt this approach and incorporate it in their planning.

The Golden Lions Rugby Union thanks Ms. Kaplan for her commitment and dedication to ensuring the incorporation of rugby in the formal school sport programme.
We understand that Saturday mornings are not the most convenient times to have meetings and appreciate her offering up 10 hours over the two Saturdays.

We wish the GDE all the best for 2010 and trust that it will be an exceptional academic year.

Cassie Drift
Manager: Development