Code of Conduct

• Provide educational purpose and value through sporting activities and competitions between member schools.
• Provide and encourage fellowship and interaction between member schools through sport.
• Provide high quality competition for all who participate and to encourage the importance of sport in a healthy lifestyle.  Lower divisions where participation is the main aim should also be an important focus of the competition.

SACSSGSA is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people within our Association. We support the rights of the child and will act without hesitation to ensure a child safe environment is maintained at all times. We also support the rights and wellbeing of our schools, officials and volunteers and encourage their active participation in building and maintaining a secure environment for all participants. SACSSGSA aims to take measures to protect the safety and welfare of children participating in our sport by:

• Identifying the risk of harm and implementing child protection practices to ensure a child-safe environment.
• Ensuring that we make sure our schools follow our Code of Conduct that specifies standards of conduct and care when dealing and interacting with children and young people.
• Making sure it takes all reasonable steps to ensure that it engages the most suitable and appropriate people to work with children and young people (in prescribed positions).
• Using a range of screening measures which aims to minimise the likelihood of engaging people who are unsuitable to work with children and young people.
• Promoting the involvement and participation of children and young people in developing and maintaining child-safe environments.
• All members are to ensure that children and young people are:
  • Informed of their rights.
  • Provided with opportunities to participate in decisions affecting them.
  • Taken seriously when raising concerns.
• Making volunteers and employees aware of their responsibilities under the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 to make a report to the Child Abuse Report Line (13 14 78) if they have suspicion on reasonable grounds that a child has been or is being abused or neglected.

• High standards of sportsmanship.
• The provision of safe and suitable sporting environments and equipment.
• School staff supervision of venues.
• Suitably qualified umpires/referees.
• Courteous conduct from players, coaches/managers and spectators.
• Commitment in providing an environment safe for children and young people that is free from harassment, discrimination and abuse and promotes respectful and positive behaviour and values.

All schools, coaches/managers/players and spectators are responsible for ensuring that the above aims and characteristics are enacted in all SACSSGSA competitions.

It is the responsibility of all SACSSGSA schools to:

• Foster sound attitudes towards sport in their coaches/managers, players and spectators.
• Provide when hosting matches, a safe and suitable environment for competition, including ready access to medical care, changing rooms, toilets, etc.
• Ensure that their coaches/managers have basic first aid training as a minimum and that all their teams are equipped with an appropriate first aid kit.
• Show courtesy to visiting schools and, when visiting other schools, to respect their premises and rules.
• Fulfil where possible, all team entry obligations (e.g. full teams, no forfeits, etc). Where unavoidable change is necessary, early notification to the opposing school is essential.
• Ensure that they provide adequate staff supervision at all venues.
• Using a range of screening measures (i.e., Working with Children Checks), to ensure that it engages the most suitable and appropriate people to work with children and young people.
• Making volunteers and employees aware of their responsibilities under the  Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 to make a report to the Child Abuse Report Line (13 14 78) if they have suspicion on reasonable grounds that a child or young person has been or is being abused or neglected.
• Complete a Risk Assessment for all venues that the school provides/coordinates for the use of sport. Copies of the Risk Assessments must be forwarded to SACSSGSA to be kept on file.
• Complete any incident reports needed and send a copy to all schools involved, as well as a copy to SACSSGSA to be kept on file.

It is the responsibility of coaches/managers to:

• Remember, that the SACSSGSA sporting competitions are primarily held for the educational and social benefits of the students and that winning or losing are secondary to this.
• Encourage student leadership on and off the field and to promote as wide a student participation in sport as possible.
• Insist on high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy, punctuality and dress.
• Strongly discourage public questioning of umpires’ decisions and petulant displays of dissent.
• Intervene promptly in cases of unacceptable behaviour (by taking a player from the game or applying a similar sanction).
• Intervene promptly to discourage spectators from any inappropriate language or behaviour, especially when directed towards the opposition or umpires.

It is the responsibility of players to:

• Exhibit high standards of sportsmanship and courtesy at all times.
• Accept the umpire’s decision without question or dissent.
• Accept winning with modesty and losing with grace.

Specifically to refrain from:

• Inappropriate language (i.e., swearing, abuse, sledging, racist taunts or other verbal harassment, etc.).
• Cheating or unfair tactics, including belittling or provocative behaviour designed to upset opponents.
• Deliberate violence to another player.

It is the responsibility of spectators to:

• Set an example of good sportsmanship by providing support that is constructive, encouraging and positive, not critical and negative
• Refrain from giving advice to a coach/manager, umpire or player during a match
• Assume some responsibility for making visiting spectators feel welcome
• Respect the premises and rules of a host school

It is the expectation of SACSSGSA that umpires contribute to the notion of fairness and good sportsmanship at all times. To best promote this, the following recommendations are made:

• Ensure scorers sit together with the score sheet.
• Check the score sheet with the scorers at each break.
• Be aware of any rules specific to the SACSSGSA competitions. (It is the responsibility of the Sports Coordinator to inform the umpires of these).  Association rule changes do not affect SACSSGSA fixtures until the beginning of the new season following notification at an Association meeting.
• Be consistent, objective and courteous: the players will learn through positive role models.
• Condemn all and every instance of foul or unfair play and report incidents to the staff member in attendance from the offending school.
• Be punctual and reliable in attendance at games.  If games are late starting the remaining time is divided equally.
• If advice and assistance can be given to all/both teams it would be appreciated by players trying to improve their knowledge of the sport.
• Common sense and player safety should prevail when considering re-scheduling of games.  The Staff in attendance will make the final decision, in consultation with the Executive Officer, on the re-scheduling of games.
• With all teams positive/encouraging coaching is permitted during the games.  Any coaching contrary to the good performance and spirit of the game should be terminated.
• Players are to maintain an acceptable level of behaviour at all times particularly when extremes in scoring occur. Umpires should note unacceptable behaviour on the scoresheet plus they should report this to the Staff member in attendance as soon as possible. 
• Enforce the rule that all safety equipment is worn by players, such as mouthguards, shin pads, masks, etc. in the appropriate sports.
• Check uniforms, nails and jewellery at the commencement of the game.
• Any inappropriate behaviour by umpires should be reported to the Venue Coordinator and the Sports Coordinator of that school as soon as possible.

• Umpires and Venue Coordinators in all SACSSGSA competitions have the authority to remove a player/team from the game, either for a temporary or permanent period, depending on the nature of the offence and whether or not prior warnings have been given.
• Where an umpire is not present (i.e., Tennis) it is the responsibility of the coach/manager to intervene in cases of unacceptable behaviour. This may include removing the player from the game or applying a similar sanction.
• If an incident occurs during a match that warrants a further investigation and/or follow up then an incident report must be filled out by the umpire/referee, both coaches and the Venue Coordinator. A copy must then be sent to all schools involved, as well as a copy to the Executive Officer of SACSSGSA. (Incident Report Forms can be found on the website)

Download the SACSSGSA Children & Young People Safeguarding Policy

Download the CESA Complaint Response & Resolution Procedure