Homeschooled students face barriers to competing in sports. Photo / 123rf
A homeschooling sector leader says rules that create barriers to homeschooled secondary school athletes chasing their sporting dreams cause “enormous frustration” for families and are seen as “inequitable and discriminatory”.
But rule-makers say the regulations aim to create a level playing field by preventing super-teams forming with imported talent and letting students represent their school “at premier levels without being displaced by short-term, imported players”.
The mother of one promising homeschooled Bay of Plenty athlete says she understands the need to prevent teams being stacked with imported athletes and to ensure places for schools’ own students but believes the rules left talented youth on the bench.
Isla Yardley was thrilled to recently compete in the national futsal championships but her spot on the team was in doubt – not due to her ability on the pitch but because she is homeschooled.
Isla and the rest of her team from Western Heights High School in Rotorua had to get exemptions to compete at the New Zealand Secondary Schools National Futsal Championships because it is a composite team and she is homeschooled.
Her mother, Victoria Yardley, said she believed the rules were benching homeschooled students who were excelling at a sport.
Isla was able to compete individually at interschool running and swimming events at primary and intermediate age, and Yardely was surprised to learn this was different at secondary school level.
However, she understood the need to prevent schools from stacking teams with top athletes from other schools or who were homeschooled, and to guard against homeschooled students taking places from enrolled students.
She believed it could benefit both parties to allow homeschooled students to join teams.
National Council of Home Educators co-ordinator Nadia Sole said in a statement regulations caused an enormous amount of frustration for families with children interested in sports.
In her view: “The rules are perceived as very inequitable and discriminatory.”
Sole said the current regulations affected students wanting to move forward in their sporting endeavours but the council was working closely with the Home Educators Student Sports Association Manatōpū to promote equitable access for all homeschooled children to sporting opportunities and ensure they “have the same sporting chances as their schooling contemporaries”.
Full membership with School Sport NZ was a goal for the association, which they had been “assured” they would receive by the beginning of the school year 2025.
Until then, homeschooled athletes would need to continue to apply for exemptions to be able to compete in national championships.
School Sport NZ chief executive Michael Summerell said the organisation’s members had developed the eligibility rules.
He said in a statement the organisation “co-ordinates, promotes, and protects secondary school sport for all students”.
Summerell said homeschooled students in the age group could compete and be awarded placings in cup and carnival events if eligibility requirements for the sport were met but there were extra requirements for championship-level competitions.
These included the need for an exemption for the homeschooled student and composite teams.
Composite teams consisted of players from different schools, including those educated at home.
Summerell said the organisation was committed to inclusivity and had been working with the Home Educators Student Sports Association Manatōpū for nearly two years to find ways for homeschooled students to participate in secondary sports competitions.
“The collaboration aims to create a framework allowing home-educated students to access SSNZ-sanctioned events, respecting the integrity of school sport while acknowledging the unique educational paths of these students.”
Association co-chair Krystal Ward said they were committed to finding a balance between upholding competition integrity and ensuring all children were included “irrespective of their educational situations”.
The association supported Yardley and Western Heights High School’s application for exemptions.
The Yardleys and Western Heights High School had to show Isla had an established connection with the school and that she had not been brought in to stack the team (or create a super-team) for the tournament.
They also had to show she would not be taking the place of a student enrolled at the school.
“The school worked with me … the sports co-ordinator and the principal … but it was spearheaded by [the association],” she said. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Isla said she felt honoured to be able to represent Western Heights High School and to have been excluded from competing with them at the nationals would have been “so upsetting”.
Western Heights High School teacher Rebecca Atkinson said the school welcomed the decision to include Isla in the team for the tournament.
Darren Twiss’ 12-year-old daughter, Amelia, competed in the North Island School Mountain Bike Championships in March. She took part in the Under 13 girls cross country and enduro races, finishing third and second respectively.
The family was made aware of the “no medals” for homeschooled children policy by Cycling NZ before the event, which Twiss says he thought was a “bit of a dumb rule”, but accepted it.
Nevertheless, he was surprised during prizegiving that the homeschooled athletes who completed their races within the top three were called up to the podium and acknowledged with certificates, separately from other athletes.
Amelia, who is a member of both the Tauranga and the Rotorua mountain bike clubs, was not allowed to remain on the podium while the medals were awarded.
Then the mainstream-schooled first- and second-placegetters for the cross country were called up and photographed, with Amelia not included for third.
“I realised at that point this is why we got the certificate and separate thing because she’s not allowed to stand up on the podium,” said Twiss. “It just felt wrong.”
During the enduro race, Twiss could see by the timings coming through that Amelia was likely to place again, and was concerned the same thing would happen. He asked if the prizegiving could be done differently by allowing Amelia to at least stand on the podium with the kids she raced against.
He was told that homeschooled children were not eligible for medals or the podium. However, when Twiss checked the Cycling NZ website, he could find no mention of ineligibility to stand on the podium.
During prizegiving for the enduro race where Amelia had the second-fastest time, and despite being called up individually to receive a certificate, she was again not included in the placings, with the girl who came third being put on the second-place podium.
“It just doesn’t feel like the way we should be treating young kids in sport,” said Twiss.
In response, Cycling NZ said “Our understanding as event facilitators was that homeschooled riders were entitled to compete and take their place on the podium when achieved, but would not receive a medal. However, this was not conveyed with sufficient clarity at the presentation at the North Island Schools MTB and CNZ has apologised to the family concerned accordingly.”
Catherine Sylvester is a multimedia journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has a background in feature writing, radio and television, and has taught media at a tertiary level.
