STATE HOOPTIME RUNNERS UP!

With all the basketball that’s practised at school each lunch & snack break we knew this year’s Junior HoopTime team had all the makings for being a very competitive team - little did we know they’d make it all the way to the State Grand Final for their All Stars Division! Out of the 290 Junior All Star Boy teams entered in the HoopTime competition this year, our boys came away on Monday by coming 2nd in the State! Well done boys! The team played four games in their pool over the morning, winning 3 out of the 4, losing their one game by just 1 point. After a nervous wait, the boys discovered that their strong percentage had locked them into top of their pool, gaining them a spot into the Quarter finals. Here they played a very strong team from Jells Park PS, but held strong to win a very close game: 18-16. The boys played Antonio Park in the semi final, who they’d played in the first game of the day already. This they played extremely well in and won 26-17. Under the calm and steady coaching guidance of Coach Ben Elix, the boys gave it their best in the Grand Final, where they played The Basin PS, who had a 6ft player (yes in Year 4!). Despite a gallant effort by the whole team, the boys were out-played and lost 10-21 in what was a brilliant State Finals effort.

We’d like to congratulate our 9 Junior All Star basketballer team members: Seb S, Cooper V, Ben W, Liam L, Xavier E, Jakub B, Josh B & Ben S on this wonderful achievement and wish to say a massive thankyou to Ben Elix for giving up his work days to coach the boys over the 3 tournaments. A big thank you to the many parents that helped with car-pooling and scoring of all the stressful games!

x2 SILVER MEDALIST @

NATIONAL TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Last week was an exciting week for one of our Year 6 student’s; Edie S (6T). Edie flew up to Canberra with the Victorian Track & Field athletics team to participate in the 12&U Track and Field National Championships! This was the second Nationals experience for Edie this year, after her football team came home gold medal champions from the 12&U Girls AFL football Nationals back in August!

Edie had a nervous few days of spectating and sideline supporting of her other Victorian team mates over the first five Track & Field championship days, and finally, on the last day of the event, had her turn. Edie participated in both the long jump and the Medley relay, running the 100m leg. Unfortunately both of her event times clashed, making her jump her first jump, then having to depart to head to marshall and run in the Medley relay! Despite her interrupted competition schedule, Edie managed to stay fully focused and ran an amazing leg in her relay, with the team coming 2nd, receiving a silver medal! Edie then jumped her final three jumps for her long jump competition, jumping a PB of 5.18m in her second jump - this was good enough to secure a silver medal in this individual event also! We congratulate Edie for her amazing achievements in coming 2nd in both events at Nationals!

MASSIVE DAY OF SWIMMING EFFORTS !

Whole School Swimming Carnival

What a beautiful sunny and warm day we were blessed with to hold our Whole School Swimming carnival at MSAC pool last Friday! This set the tone for what turned out to be a very active and fun day for many. From 25m freestyle, novelty events, 50m butterfly and our mixed medley relays, it was so wonderful to see so many students trying their best and putting their swimming skills to the test!

A massive THANK YOU goes to the forty or so parents and ex-students that gave up their half or full day to assist with either the Junior or Senior carnival - we couldn’t run such extensive carnivals without this support! A special mention to my early morning helper; Tom N and to Kellie A for her amazing efforts over the day also.

WINNING HOUSE: Nagle

We congratulate the winning house; NAGLE, who won both the Senior and Junior carnival and won outright for the school!

URGENT RETURN OF ALL SPORTS SINGLETS

Can we please ask ALL Year 3-6 families to take a good look around their child’s bedroom and drawers and send back all borrowed sports singlets from our Term 3 & 4 events to Mrs Thompson please.

MANY THANKS!

2026 TERM 1 SPORT DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES

For those that like to get dates into their calendars now, we are very excited to announce the following Sports dates for Term 1 next year. All families with current Year 2-5 children will have received an email on Tuesday this week regarding signing up for the Week 2 Swim Team trials for 2026. We’d love to see as many 2026 Year 3-6 students as possible give our Swim Team trials a go in early February, so please encourage your child to start their swim-fit training now, as well as any Athletics training.

Swim Team trials (Year 3-6 only): Tues. 3rd Feb. @ GESAC outdoor pool, 7.15am- 9.00am

Swim Team training (selected team): Fri. 20th & Tues. 24th Feb. @ GESAC, 7.15 -8.15am

District Swimming Carnival (relevant students only): Wedn.4th March @ Oakleigh Pool

Whole School (P-6) House Athletics Carnival: Fri. 27th March @ Duncan McKinnon Reserve

P&F Colour Run: Thurs. 2nd April @ Dendy Park Athletics oval.

“THREE CHEERS” FOR OUR YR. 6 SPORT LEADERS!

A big thank you goes to our Year 6 Sport Leaders this year for their fabulous efforts with many of our sporting events, lunchtime tournaments & presentations. Our Houses loved their chants and it was fabulous to see everyone dressed up in their house colours at our Inter-House events over the year!

Nagle Leaders	Max A, Jude H
Xavier Leaders	Edie S, Oscar G
Marian Leaders	Elsie M, Jordan K
Finbar Leaders	Luis C, Evan P

SPORT THANK YOU’S - 2025

This 2025 year has yet again been an extremely ‘active’ one for everything involving sport here at St. Finbar’s, with almost every week in our school calendar having some form of sports-event! We again have been very blessed with the amount of support in running these sporting events by our staff as well as the dozens of amazing St. Finbar’s parents! This year saw our three major House carnivals have at least twenty five to fifty parents offer their time and efforts to assist with the running of these carnivals. We cannot thank you all enough for this support - helping turn each of our events into the successful days they were. Our students are very lucky to have such a supportive schooling community! Here’s to another fabulous year of sport for all in 2026!

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