SQUAD OR TRIAL ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The moment your child steps into a competitive pathway they are by definition entering an environment where various factors will determine their progress and continuation in the class. Once you are on the competitive pathway you will always be on trial.

It's important to start off by saying that we do not kick children out of squad with no notice unless there has been a serious breach of our Code Of Conducts by the child or the parent. A clear process takes place where the parents are made aware of development areas that need to improve and a review period is proposed. This period will vary from child to child and by what the development area is. Typically, for behavioural development areas we would propose between 2-6 weeks but with more complicated skills it could be a term or more. They may also be told at this stage what the recommended alternative pathway would be should the development areas not improve to a satisfactory level. If at the end of this period the coach considers the best decision for the child is to move to a different pathway we will then talk to you about what this entails. Some parents will be comfortable to make the move, others may want to move to a different club to see if that is more appropriate, others may want to stop entirely. SAADI will support the child positively whatever the decision you make. Their welfare is the priority at all times.

We can obviously not control what our parents say to their children but we can control what our coaches do. Our coaches will never discuss being on a trial or decisions regarding continuation in squad in front of the child unless requested to do so by the parent. They will also never use negative language and we strongly recommend parents don’t either. We do understand however, that however much time we spend framing the experience correctly,  moving out of a trial class does involve change. At such a young age it may upset some children because they are no longer with some of their friends. But it should never feel like they have failed or in the very worst scenarios result in them feeling their gymnastics dream of going to the Olympics is over. We adults control this narrative and have a joint responsibility to make sure this is managed correctly. As a club we take this extremely seriously and SAADI is one of the first clubs nationally to have teamed up with Working With Parents in Sport to help develop this type of culture.

Our coaches decision is always final. We will consider any attempt to undermine the decision as a serious breach of our Parental Code of Conduct.