Education | Look Back at 2021
It has been a bumper year for our education programmes despite some courses only running for six months. Covid-19 restrictions meant that face-to-face courses and assessments could only restart in June.
Coach and judge education has been a priority for us after last year’s disruption. We asked members what they thought would be the most helpful way for us to invest into the club community to help the sport recover. Subsidised courses for level one and two courses were the top choices.
We are grateful to members for identifying education as a priority. It allowed us to work with sportscotland to halve the cost for Scottish Gymnastics members for level one, level two and preschool CPD courses to the end of March 2022.
Formal education programme
We ran:
– 56 courses with 588 attendees. This includes Learn to coach, L1, L2 and L3.
– 45 courses with 453 attendees receiving the benefit of a 50% discount on fees.
Coach CPD
With limited opportunities to engage face-to-face with coaches, we took a virtual approach to coach development and CPD which are likely to continue as part of a more blended approach in the coming years.
We ran:
Nine UK coaching workshops with 123 attendees. This was six coaching the gymnast in front of you and three coaching children 5-12 years old.
Judge CPD
We have worked closely with our technical committees in 2021 to bring judge CPD and online resources to support the ongoing development of our judge community across all disciplines.
We ran:
Four virtual workshops with 45 attendees and four online resources created through our online learning platform, absorb, to support judges across these disciplines to return to judging as competitions started again in 2021.
CPD: Code of points
With new code of points a focus for most disciplines, we are also focussed on bringing our judging community up to date with CPD in January and February 2022. The rhythmic technical committee has started this process already with a series of four online sessions on their new code of points in October and November 2021 which had over 50 judges in attendance.
BSc Programme
Four coaches from the second cohort of the BSc Developing Athletes Through Professional Practice have successfully graduated from Edinburgh Napier University. They are:
– Anna Macdonald – Alloa Gymnastics Club
– Beth Paterson – Jump Gymnastics Club
– Nicole Higginson – Astro Gymnastics Club
– Shannon Archer – South Essex Gymnastics Club
Carolyn McKenzie from Donside Trampoline Club, also graduated in 2021 as part of the previous cohort which started in 2018.
Scottish Gymnastics is currently reviewing the programme with Edinburgh Napier for in 2022, which may take a new format.
Mentoring
Scottish Gymnastics’ four regional pathway coaches have also been involved in a mentoring programme which consists of six learning modules spread across the year, and we are currently exploring options on how to roll out this programme to more coaches and clubs in our gymnastics community.
Coming Up
2022 is exciting year of CPD with plenty in store for coach development through our gymnastics for all and technical symposiums currently in their planning phases.
We are also planning to build on the work we are doing with technical committees with a greater focus on judge support and development with CPD and support programmes also in their planning phases.