Magazine 2020

158 | Edition No. 23 | 2020 A sport that doesn’t spend as much time in the sun, but definitely is reliant on sunny days, is softball. This sport is relatively unknown to many, and is probably the smallest sport at the Prepara - tory. These factors don’t stand in the way of our determined girls. When they take to the dia - mond, it is with every intention to give their best effort and to give themselves the best shot at success, whether the girls are lying up their hit off the batting tee during a tee- ball match in Grade 3 or getting that crucial strike out in the final U12 match. We are excited to see our girls continue to go from strength to strength as they get more com - fortable with their positions on the softball diamond. Just as the year was picking up speed and our tour parties were about to de - part to their various destinations, the national lockdown took centre stage and the Prepara - tory sports programme changed shape from that moment. It is generally expected that sport and physi - cal activity is best suited to take place outside in wide open spaces. For our programme to be successful in 2020 we would have to radically change perceptions and find ways to harness an enthusiasm to be active and an ap - petite for competition. With this in mind, we set out on this new adventure with the hope of creating content that would be engaging, while at the same time lifting the spirits of our learners at home. Our sports department grabbed the op- portunity with both hands and were able to keep the physical activity momentum going with a combination of daily and weekly vid - eos that were posted on social media and Google Classroom. It was very encourag - ing to see how the Preparatory learners interacted with the content, with many learners submitting their own attempts at the challenges. Insta-PE was born when Mr Watson had a few extra toilet paper rolls lying around during the initial phase of lockdown. The toilet roll challenges varied from juggling to how high you could jump! The platform also allowed the learners to be creative in the space that they had available to them, as many of the activities incorporated items that were easily available around the house. With the sports department having achieved one of their lockdown goals: keeping learn - ers active during lockdown through Insta-PE, the next goal was to keep the competitive instinct that sport develops, alive. Having just celebrated the Freedom Day long week - end (and Mrs Steynberg’s birthday), the Preparatory families gathered around their devices to take on the Incredibly Impossible waterpolo tennis swimming rugby