From the Principal
Throughout the Term, it has been a thrill to see so many of our students fully embrace the broad range of sporting activities on offer to them; be it within our College through our vibrant House competitions in both the Primary and Secondary schools, or the extension of this House involvement through the various College representative pathways competing against athletes from other schools at the NAS Carnivals and ACC A-Division Swimming Carnival this week for Secondary School students. Congratulations are extended to our Secondary School swimming team for securing second place at the ACC A-Division Swimming Carnival. I encourage you to read more about this outstanding result in the Secondary Sport section of our Newsletter. Included in the Secondary School section of our Newsletter, you will also find a flow chart detailing the broad sports offerings available in the Secondary School.
In the Primary School, our representative swimmers recently competed strongly at the IPSHA Swimming Carnival and our boys’ and girls’ tennis teams competed in the Academy Plate Tennis Tournament, with the girls’ team being awarded runners up and the boys’ team winning the Academy Plate. All are exceptional achievements.
As well as swimming and tennis, our students have been heavily involved in Netball, Cricket, Rugby 7s and Rowing, with our rowers competing in the South West Head of the River regatta last Sunday winning the Charles Hastie Cup.
In addition, our track athletes successfully competed in the WA Athletics State Championships, receiving medals in the 100m, 200m (Ciaran Doyle Gold in both), 800m, 1500m (Lyla Stewart, Silver and Gold, respectively) and Shot Put and Discus (Ciana Rio Porto Gold in both).
Important to note is that all of this sporting activity has taken place in only the first eight weeks of the year. Our sporting program is both broad, enabling diverse interests to be catered for, and specialised enough to provide suitable pathways for those who aim to compete at the highest level.
During the week, I was afforded the opportunity to speak to Ciaran, Lyla, Ciana and Sylvia Czajko, who recently competed in the Victorian Open Swimming Championships and broke a 29-year swimming record during the ACC Carnival this week. Our conversations reaffirmed that there is much to be gained from maintaining a commitment to sport and physical activity, as well as working hard towards academic success – the two aims are not mutually exclusive. How sport and academics complement each other is not necessarily well understood, however, with some students feeling the need to forgo, or at least postpone, their sporting pursuits when they decide to dedicate themselves to ‘more serious’ academic endeavour, only to find that the purported positive change fractures the long-established structure their academic studies have benefited from.
Although counter-intuitive to many, maintaining a commitment to sport and physical activity generally enhances academic performance. Regular exercise has been shown to improve memory, concentration and cognitive function. The discipline required to balance both academics and sports also supports the development of valuable time management skills, while fostering qualities like perseverance, teamwork, and goal setting, which can positively influence the approach to academic studies and help build resilience when overcoming challenges. Not to mention the sheer joy and excitement that can result from competing with friends.
With this in mind, at the time of writing this Newsletter article, our Years 11 and 12 NAS teams are competing strongly at their own NAS Carnival, and the Years 9 and 10 students are currently involved in their training schedules as part of the lead-up to their NAS Carnival on 27 March. To ensure all Years 11 and 12 students are engaged in physical activity, those not competing today selected from a range of physical activities including soccer, basketball, water aerobics, aerobics, yoga, self-defence, volleyball, netball and Zumba. Such breadth indeed.
Daniel Mahon
Principal