School Sport New Zealand in partnership with Sport New Zealand, are pleased to release the National Census Data for secondary school sport participation 2021.  The National participation rate of 49%, slightly up on 2020 (48%)  means 137,596 students represented their school in one or more sports.   With many predicting a decrease due to the impact of Covid-19 and lockdowns in parts of the country towards the end of last year, this result comes as a welcome surprise. Despite the many challenges faced during 2021 school sport continues to remain an integral aspect of school life.  

To all our NSO and event partners across the country a huge thank you on behalf of all our schools, students, and their communities for providing the opportunity to participate in sport at a time when we thought no school sport may be possible at all. Your hard work, perseverance, and innovation allowed for students across the country to enjoy the many social, physical, and mental benefits that we know exist through participation in sport.  Thank you also to the 447 schools across New Zealand who submitted their census with the assistance from their Regional Sport Director (RSD), without this data we could not recognise your efforts.

The number of teaching staff coaching saw an increase from 15% in 2020 to 16% in 2021, and likewise teaches involved in sport had a 2% increase to 27%.  This represents 3803 and 7006 teachers respectively provding leadership through education.  Thank you to everyone who played a part in keeping rangatahi engaged in sport. School Sport NZ’s recently completed research had highlighted the issues and challenges that teachers have reported around involvement in school sport, and it is heartening that this research is being utilised across the school sport system with Sport NZ and NSOs resulting in some positive change. 

Netball remains the most popular sport in our secondary schools with over 26,000 students involved, followed by Basketball (24,850), Rugby (24,299), Volleyball (22,444), and Football (20,787). Netball was the most popular for girls followed by volleyball and rugby was the most popular for boys followed by basketball. While the challenges we faced within the school sport sector are evident, there was also plenty of opportunity with some sports showing increases in participation numbers. 

Regional Sports Directors have been provided with detailed regional School Sport NZ Census data and National Summaries can be found on the School Sport NZ website at School Sport New Zealand - School Sport NZ Census Reports (sporty.co.nz)

Article added: Thursday 24 February 2022