1. Status
This handbook requires formal FIGS approval. Event contracts, fees, insurance, disciplinary powers, data retention, and appeal arrangements must be reviewed by appropriate professionals before adoption.
The handbook applies to FIGS-managed activities and should be read with the Safeguarding Policy, Risk Assessment Policy, Games Handbook, event technical bulletin, host agreement, and applicable law.
2. Purpose and values
FIGS exists to provide credible inter-school competition and collaboration through consistent standards, safe delivery, transparent administration, and educational value.
Child welfare and controlled operations come before schedule or result.
Published eligibility, rules, officiating, results, and appeal routes apply consistently.
Students, schools, officials, staff, venues, and volunteers are treated with dignity.
Competition supports learning, leadership, teamwork, creativity, and healthy participation.
Decisions, risks, incidents, registrations, and changes are recorded and reviewable.
3. Governance and authority
Approves strategy, policy, annual calendar, financial authority, appointments, and serious disciplinary or safeguarding decisions.
Controls school accounts, event publication, registrations, status decisions, authorised exports, and operational records.
Leads event planning and delivery and has authority to pause, modify, postpone, or cancel unsafe operations.
Controls the field-of-play, applies the Games Handbook and technical bulletin, and validates results.
Exercise independent stop and escalation authority within their professional responsibilities.
Conflicts of interest must be declared. A person should not decide a complaint, selection, protest, or sanction where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned.
4. School membership and participation
Admission is subject to FIGS approval and any published membership conditions. A participating school must:
- Nominate an authorised school coordinator and safeguarding contact.
- Keep its portal credentials secure and notify FIGS promptly of suspected compromise.
- Submit accurate student, eligibility, consent, medical-alert, and emergency-contact information by the deadline.
- Provide competent supervising adults and remain responsible for students throughout attendance and travel arranged by the school.
- Follow venue, safeguarding, safety, accreditation, media, and technical requirements.
- Pay approved fees and disclose withdrawals promptly.
- Cooperate with incident review, complaints, and lawful information requests.
FIGS may pause portal access or participation where information is materially inaccurate, fees remain unresolved, safety requirements are unmet, or conduct creates unacceptable risk. Any sanction must follow the approved process.
5. Calendar and season planning
- FIGS publishes events through the administrator-managed calendar.
- Hidden events are provisional and must not be promoted as confirmed.
- A published event entry communicates date and headline information; the technical bulletin confirms venue, categories, format, deadlines, and sport-specific modifications.
- Material changes are time-stamped and sent through authorised school channels.
- FIGS may alter, postpone, relocate, or cancel an event for safety, participation, venue, force-majeure, regulatory, or operational reasons.
6. Event delivery standard
Before the event
- Approved event brief, budget, venue agreement, risk assessment, safeguarding plan, medical plan, insurance confirmation, technical bulletin, communications plan, and incident contacts.
- Verified venue readiness, emergency access, equipment, officials, volunteers, vendors, data lists, accreditation, and signage.
- School briefing covering arrival, supervision, competition, safeguarding, media, medical, and departure arrangements.
During the event
- Named command structure and decision log.
- Controlled check-in, restricted areas, live attendance, incident recording, and results validation.
- Clear public information without disclosure of protected personal or safeguarding information.
After the event
- Validated results, unresolved protest log, incident follow-up, safeguarding transfer, financial close, venue review, and improvement actions.
7. Registration and eligibility
Only authorised school accounts may submit student registrations. The portal records the school account, event, student details, consent confirmation, and status.
- Submitted: received but not yet accepted as a confirmed place.
- Confirmed: accepted subject to continuing eligibility and event requirements.
- Waitlisted: held pending capacity or category availability.
- Cancelled: no longer active; the record remains for accountability.
A confirmation is not a waiver of eligibility checks. Schools must retain source evidence and present it where the technical bulletin lawfully requires verification. Duplicate entries for the same student, grade, and event are blocked unless the earlier entry is cancelled.
8. Code of conduct
All participants must follow officials’ lawful directions and behave safely and respectfully. Prohibited conduct includes abuse, threats, discriminatory language, bullying, hazing, cheating, deliberate eligibility misrepresentation, field-of-play invasion, property damage, retaliation, and unauthorised publication of confidential information.
Coaches and school staff are responsible for the conduct of their delegation. Spectator misconduct may result in removal, restricted access, match interruption, or further action under the approved disciplinary process. Safeguarding concerns are handled under the Safeguarding Policy, not reduced to ordinary misconduct.
9. Communications, media, and brand
- Only authorised FIGS officers issue official event, result, disciplinary, emergency, or media statements.
- Schools must use the portal and nominated contacts; group messages do not replace formal notices where a decision affects rights or deadlines.
- Logos, marks, rankings, photographs, video, and sponsor materials require approval and appropriate consent.
- Student identity, safeguarding information, medical information, and login credentials must not be published.
- Results are provisional until validated by the technical lead and marked final by FIGS.
10. Complaints, protests, and appeals
| Route | Use | Decision owner |
|---|---|---|
| Safeguarding report | Concern about a child or adult conduct affecting child safety | Safeguarding Officer / statutory authority |
| Technical protest | Application of playing rules or recorded result | Technical jury named in bulletin |
| Operational complaint | Service, access, scheduling, venue, or administration | Event Director / FIGS Administrator |
| Disciplinary matter | Serious or repeated misconduct | Authorised disciplinary panel |
Deadlines, fees if any, evidence rules, conflicts, decision times, and appeal rights must be published before the event. A safeguarding or safety report is never rejected for missing a competition-protest deadline.
11. Data and records
FIGS collects only information necessary for membership, event delivery, safeguarding, safety, communication, finance, and accountability. Access is role-based. Passwords are stored as salted hashes, administrative actions are audited without passwords or student names, and exports require administrator authentication.
Before formal operation, FIGS must approve privacy notices, lawful bases, retention periods, data-subject request procedures, breach response, processor agreements, backup arrangements, and secure deletion standards.
12. Document hierarchy and review
Applicable law and binding authority requirements prevail. Subject to those requirements, the order is: formally approved FIGS policies; event technical bulletin; Games Handbook; this Handbook; operational instructions. A later event bulletin may modify competition format but cannot reduce safeguarding, legal, medical, or safety duties.
The handbook is reviewed before every season, after a serious incident or appeal, and when law, official guidance, insurance, systems, or competition scope changes.