P.E. and Sport
SWIM-MANIA AT ST JOES!
SWIM SQUAD IS NOW COMPLETE AND WE'RE READY FOR THE DISTRICTS CHAMPIONSHIPS!!
Thanks to the help of many within our school commmunity, who turned up for our early morning 7.30am starts. Yesterday we completed our final session of what has been a wonderful Swim Squad Program for our competitive swimmers. With a record number of 43 swimmers from Year 3-6 (but a few of our squad swimmers needing a sleep in or had other commitments yesterday), our Swim Team is prepared and ready for the District Swimming Championships set for this Friday at Yawa. Please feel free to come and along and support the students on the day!
Our squad sessions practised a number of race techniques such as race starts and dives, finishing strongly with freestyle 'winding it up', counting their backstroke strokes from the flags to perfect their race finishing in a safe way and also learning about smooth transitions for their relay changeovers. The MANY, MANY LAPS of the 50m Yawa Pool certainly tested, and built upon, their swim technique, determination and stamina.
A huge thank you to:
- Our Swim Coaches and poolside parent helpers, especially Bill (my dad), Kym and Assunta and Jannica ( on sign in)and all other parent helpers, who roamed the poolside with noodles and much encouragement for our younger swimmers.
- Our Breakfast Chefs - Prue and Sarah for having toast and fruit prepared and served for our swimmers on their return to school (and to Mrs O'Shannassy for picking up these supplies each week)
- Our School Community Bus Drivers - Mrs Hayes, Mrs Barber and Mrs O'Shannassy for dropping the students back to school to start their school day.
SWIM TEAM CAP PRESENTATION BREAKFAST
We acknowledged ALL squad swimmers at our Swim Cap Presentation yesterday after squad, for pushing those who had been selected to have to strive to be their very best in achieving the fastest times they could. Our St Joseph's Swim Team were presented with their caps in our school hall, while finishing Prue and Sarah's delicious breakfast.
A special opportunity was given to our Year 6 Students to address the junior members of our team, to provide some motivational and encouraging words , having been to districts before, with some words of experience from one of our highly-respected state-level swimmers, Alfred, captured in the attached video.
PREP TO YEAR 4 INTENSIVE SWIM PROGRAM HAS COMMENCED
We had a pleasant start to our compulsory swimming program for students from Prep, Year 1/2 and Year 3/4 with our Swim Teachers (Bill, Jacki, Kamica and myself) conducting pre-testing for next week's intensive lessons. This helps us to ascertain whether the students have maintained their swimming level gained since their Term 4 Achievement. In some cases, students had moved up a level or two, from lots of practice and/or lessons over the summer holidays. For our Preps and a few other students who are new to the school, it was their first time at our Sorrento Pool. We hope to have some photos of our Preppies in the next newsletter.
Next week, students will commence a more intensive approach, swimming from Monday to Thursday for a 30 minute lesson each day. Please check the Operoo for your child's swimming time and feel free to come up and support them. All parents are asked to remain outside the change rooms during change times.
SCHOOL ROUND-ROBIN TENNIS TOURNAMENT
With around 30 students from Year 3-6 Mrs O'Shannassy dropped us at Sorrento Tennis Courts where we were greeted warmly by the Jan Vivallo and the mid-week ladies, who had allowed us complimentary use of five of their courts. Special thanks to Adam Brueckner for helping out on the day with supervision and to the parents who came to support the students as they played.
All of the students had a great time with 3-4 shorter sets of tennis and learnt a lot about how to score, tennis etiquette and some skills as well.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS WHO WILL REPRESENT ST JOSEPH'S TENNIS TEAM NEXT FRIDAY 8TH MARCH IN THE DISTRICT TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS AT ROSEBUD TENNIS CLUB
JEREMY BRADLER MATILDA CLEARY
FLYNN MURRAY ISABELLA WILLCOCK
CHARLIE WALSH TAHLIA CLEARY
We wish them all the best as they represent our school at Rosebud Tennis Club against the best of our district schools.
Warm Regards,
JENNY TODD
Physical Education Specialist & Sports Coordinator