SCHOOL SWIMMING CARNIVAL - Challenging ourselves and stretching outside our comfort zones!

What a wonderful display of swimming prowess, effort and colour today displayed by our students from Year 3-6. There was the expectation that ALL students would participate in either the competitive races or the novelty races, earning house points for their teams, Mazenod, Mannix, Bunurong and McAuley! We also had our secret scouts out and about searching for SPIRIT AND SPORTSMANSHIP AWARDS which earnt 25 points for house teams. We were so proud of the courage, talent and commitment shown by every St Joseph's student to be involved for the sake of their team.

THANK YOU to every parent and staff member who performed a helping role on the day. A day like this is not possible without you!

The laughter and fun was clear to see for those in the NOVELTY EVENTS as well as the spectators of the noodle races, kick-board races and non-competitive 25m swim races. Short finger nails and sweat pouring from brows could be observed for the competitive 50m races.........AND THAT WAS JUST FROM THE PARENTS! Those students competing in the competitive 50m races (Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke) earnt DOUBLE the house points or TRIPLE POINTS for the 50m Butterfly races. These were electronically split-timed and compared in order to select our School Swim Team. They will compete on Friday March 1st at the District Championships against the best of the nine other Phillip District schools.

From the competitive race results today, the rules for selecting our School Swim Team are only ONE boy and ONE girl for each of the following strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly) using the following age groups:

Students turning 12 or 13 anytime in 2024 (called 12/13 yr boys / girls)

Students turning 11 anytime in 2024 (called 11 yr boys / girls)

Students turning 8, 9 or 10 anytime in 2024 (called 9/10 yr boys / girls)

The fastest 4 students in freestyle will form the Freestyle relay team for that age group. The best overall fastest students (Open Age) will also form the Open Medley Relay.

At the District Swimming Championships, each swimmer may only swim in a maximum of two individual events, plus a freestyle relay and an Open Medley (total of 4 boy swimmers and 4 girl swimmers in that event).

Thank you for all students today who demonstrated a growth mindset in stepping outside of their comfort zone to swim in races that they found daunting or challenging. It was to be admired!

At St Joseph's we need students to approach every sport with an open mind and a can-do attitude and to ensure that we always have enough students to enter events and teams across this year for St Joseph's! We will always ensure that our students will be prepared and ready to take on these challenges! Thank you for demonstrating this today, students, and to parents and staff for supporting them through this.

We have always shown that at St Joseph's, though we are small in number, we have GIANT HEARTS and exceptional sporting SPIRIT!

Check out our Social Media pages for today's photographs (thanks to Jess Lumsden). Special results and information for the selected School Swim Team will also be published in the next newsletter along with photos from today.

Swim Squad - What a turnout we have had the past two weeks!

With two-thirds of our Year 3-6 joining in with our St Joseph's Swim Squad (42 students in total), we have been able to prepare for both a School Swimming Carnival today and also looking ahead to the District Swimming Sports and beyond to possible Division, Region or State qualification. Thanks so much to all parents who have helped with signing students in (Jannica), coaching (Bill, Kym and Assunta), helping poolside with supervision and collecting equipment for drills and assisting with transport to or from YAWA. Special tha nks to Mrs O'Shannassy, Mrs Hayes and Mrs Barber for driving tthe students back on the buses from the pool and to Prue and Sarah for preparing breakfast for our squad members on their return.

The competitive race techniques, swim fitness and overall confidence was very obvious today from our Squad Swimmers at today's School Swimming Carnival. We have two more squad sessions and have been granted permission by YAWA to be able to practice our dives before the districts, as well as the strokes of breaststroke and butterfly for our final two sessions.

Team Vic Trials Nominations

Information on selective nominations for Team Vic (Victorian State Team Selection) in the areas of Basketball, Netball, Cricket, AFL and Soccer will be sent out on Operoo this week. This is for Year 6 students who play at an elite level in any of these sports (ie. they play in a representative team, finished in the top 3 Best and Fairest, have won Most Valuable Player Awards, etc.) Before registering, parents must read through the Operoo when considering if this trial process matches your child's level of current ability in this sport. Schools are limited to a certain number of registrations per school in each field. More on this in this week's Operoo.

School Tennis Trials

An Operoo will be sent out shortly detailing School Tennis Trials in the next two weeks to select a school team of two boys and two girls to represent St Joseph's School at the District Tennis Championships. Our trials will consist of a round-robin tournament and will be open to boys and girls from year 3-6 who have experience in playing and know how to score in tennis and who either play tennis competition or who have had tennis lessons. More details on this in the upcoming Operoo.

Senior Primary School Aerobics Team at St Joseph’s

There will be a short information session on Friday, 16th Feb straight after school under the new shade sails at 3:20pm for any Grade 5/6 students interested in joining a St Joseph’s School Aerobics Team! Girls & boys are both welcome, with no previous experience necessary, however a dance, cheerleading, acro or gymnastics background would be helpful. If you require any further information please contact Assunta on 0421 387 480 or assunta@beachshack67.com.au (Image from the official School Aerobics Website).

The students at St Joseph's School are so lucky to have so many wonderful sporting opportunities. Let's see the continued enthusiasm of people wanting to take part in as many of these as possible across 2024!

Small in number, but with BIG HEARTS!

Warm Regards,

JENNY TODD

Physical Education Specialist & Sports Coordinator

jennyt@sjsorrento.catholic.edu.au

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CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY - SUNDAY 3 MARCH 2024