During the downtime of 2020, Badminton Australia was able to grow its Shuttle Time participation despite lockdowns and inconsistent schooling throughout the year.
With the aim of continuing to engage as many participants as possible to keep children fit, happy and healthy during a time when they had limited access to regular physical activities, Badminton Australia utilised the free online Shuttle Time resources such as Teachers’ Manual, Lesson Plans, Video Tutorials, Mobile App and Online Component.
Teachers were still able to learn and implement the programme using the online Shuttle Time resources. Badminton Australia was able to have over 22,000 children take part in the Sporting Schools programme across 2020, meaning these youngsters played badminton at some point last year as part of their PE classes.
“I was fairly impressed with how well Australia was able to bounce back and in particular how badminton was seen as a sport teachers chose to undertake. Much of Australia was locked away from March to June but after that we saw a sky rocket of participation as teachers wanted to get their students moving again,” said Shuttle Time National Coordinator of Australia Matt Simpson.
“Through the Sporting Schools programme, we had a record number of programmes for badminton in Term 3, which meant a huge number of children were playing the sport during school. We considered revising our participation targets given the lockdowns but we were able to meet and exceed them, which was a pleasant surprise.
“Probably a few factors helped us get there – timing as Term 3 is a popular time for badminton, funding as government had put in a bit of extra money into the Sporting Schools programme and flexibility of the programme as teachers didn’t need to bring external people into the school and risk infections being brought in by facilitators.”
Badminton Australia is looking forward to implementing the increasingly popular Shuttle Time programme at schools and in local communities around the country.
