WELCOME

Welcome to another year of sporting opportunities for 2024.

This year we welcome the wonderful Miss Chloe Devlin who will be teaching the PE syllabus with all classes across 5 days.

Mrs Col will assist with some classes on a Monday.

Here is your classes sports days at a glance

Mrs Col will continue the role of Sport Coordinator in providing multiple sporting opportunities for the students at St Patrick's beyond the PE Syllabus. Opportunities will range from Sydney Catholic Schools Representative Sporting Pathways, Sydney Catholic Schools Interschool Sport Gala Days, Catholic Schools NSW endorsed gala and development days and sport holiday activities as well as invitational gala days from our local national sporting organisations.

SAVE THE DATE

SPORT DATES AT A GLANCE

Event	Date
2-6 Cross Country (nominations close Thu 29th Feb)	March 11th
Sydney Swimming Championships (qualifiers only)	March 25th
Great White Legends Gala Day (years involved to be confirmed)	April 3rd
2-6 School Athletics Carnival (all students)	April 8th
Stage 3 Interschool Netball and Unified European Handball Gala Day	April 9th
Year 3 Interschool Football Gala Day	April 10th

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES

Conference 3 Swimming Trials

On Monday 12th February we had 22 students represent St Patrick's at the Conference 3 Swimming Trial. Students strived for their best in the pool and displayed great sportsmanship. The event was held at Sutherland Leisure Centre with 437 students represented across 24 schools from the Sutherland and St George Network who raced in 113 races across 40 events. Thank you to Mrs Hill and Mrs Baker who supervised and cheered our students by the poolside.

Our super star swimmers were Saorise B, Elsie B, Zachary C, Sebastian C, Xavier D, Sam E, Ethan G, Annaleigh K D, Dennis L, Camilla M, Molly P, Pyper R, Beatriz R P, Georgia S C, James S, Hudson S, Lucy T, Lachlan T, Grace T, Oscar T, Abby W and Madison W.

We are so proud of each and every student who represented us so well at this trial. We are excited to have 13 of our students progress to the Sydney Swimming Championships on Monday 25th March at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Congratulations to:

Xavier D - 4th 8 years 50m Freestyle

Hudson S - 4th - 9 years 50m Freestyle

Ethan G - 6th - 9 years 50m Freestyle

Elsie B - 6th Senior 50m Butterfly

Annaleigh KD - 5th Open Female 100m & 6th 12 years 50m Backstroke

Dennis L - 2nd 10 years 50m Freestyle / 1st Junior Boys 50m Breaststroke / 3rd Junior Boys 50m Butterfly / 4th Junior 200m IM

Oscar T - 5th 11 years 50m Freestyle / 4th 11 years 50m Backstroke / 6th 11 years 50m Breaststroke / 5th 11 years 50m Butterfly / 3rd Senior 200 IM

2nd - Junior Boys Relay (Dennis L, James S, Hudson S, Ethan G)

2nd - Senior Girls Relay (Madison W, Elsie B, Grace T, Annaleigh K)

4th - Senior Boys Relay (Zach C, Lachlan T, Sam E, Oscar T)

We wish them the best of luck for this upcoming trial.

MacKillop Tennis

Good luck to Petar S who will represent our school at the MacKillop Tennis Trials on Wednesday 21st February in Rockdale. Petar continues his trial season for tennis from term 4 and has been preparing himself over the break for this event. Wishing you all the best Petar.

MacKillop Basketball

We were amazed to hear that 3 of our year 6 students made the MacKillop Basketball trials on Friday 23rd February. We wish Ethan P, Franklin G and Lachlan P all the best as they give it their all on the court.

Football (Soccer)

On Tuesday 27th February we have 9 students representing our school at the Conference 3 Football Trials at Kareela. Good luck to Noah VD, Lenny A, Dion T, Luca U and Christopher P. Our 4 girl representatives have not yet been confirmed and will be announced in the next newsletter. All girls who nominated for this sport will be involved in an in-school football trial on Monday 19th February to determine our final representatives.

Rugby League

We wish Harlem T, Jye L, Hunter B and Zachary C all the best at the upcoming combined conference 3 and 4 Rugby league trials on Tuesday 5th March. Go get them boys!

SCS Sporting Pathways - Representative

The Representative Pathway Sports will continue into Term 1 2024 with many sports already in the MacKillop Trial stage. This is because the representative sport calendar season with Sydney Catholic Schools runs from Term 4 2023 to Term 3 2024.

Year 5 and Year 6 students have the opportunity to represent St Patrick’s at trials to progress through the pathway system. The sports they will be able to trial for are varied and many are open to both boys and girls.

To be considered for selection to represent St Patrick’s students requires experience and to be playing the sport as a registered player at a high level of skill outside of school. This should be in the form of a regular, structured rep, Division 1 or equivalent A level competition. Parents had the opportunity to nominate their child via an electronic form last year. This form will be re-sent around September 2024 to gather any new or updated information regarding your child's sport involvement outside of school. Nominations for this sports calendar season have closed as trials have commenced. An update on the status of these trials was shared with all our current year 5 and 6 families at the start of week 2 which also guided any new families on the process for representative sport at St Patrick’s.

When a student attends a Conference Pathways Sporting event it is important that they take the appropriate signed documentation with them to the trial. This will be provided to you from our school office. All trials require the parent consent form as documentation of the students details. Your child may not be allowed to compete without the form. Your child will also be given a representative St Patrick's Jersey/Shirt to wear in which they will need to wash and return after the trial.

If there is a change in your child's attendance to one of these events please email amanda.col@syd.catholic.edu.au so I can make the necessary arrangements to withdraw your child from this event. This is to ensure an accurate record on COMPASS and for the smooth running of the trial event.

Years 2-6 School Cross Country Trial

Our School Cross Country Trial is on Monday 11th March, 2024 in week 6. The trial will be held at Waratah Upper and Lower Fields, Sutherland. The below information was shared via COMPASS to all families in Years 2-6. Please note in red some changes that have been made to this original correspondence.

This is an optional event and students who do not wish to participate will remain at school for formal lessons. As the course is 2km for 8, 9 and 10 year old and 3km for 11, 12 and 13 year old, competitors need to be confident in competing over these distances. Age categories are based on the age your child will turn during 2024. Please note that students in Year 2 who are turning 7 in 2024 (born in 2017) can participate in this cross country event, however if they place in the top 4, they won't be eligible to compete against other schools at the Cross country Championships in Term 2. Sydney Catholic Schools set the age criteria for these events and all participants must be born between 2011-2016.

Students will walk to the oval from school under teacher and parent supervision. We will leave school at 9:00am and return at approximately 1:00pm. Alternatively, you can drop your child to Waratah Fields at 9:15am. Please note that if you are dropping your child off at the track, supervision will start from 9:15am due to course set up. Students will then walk back to school after the trial has finished to resume with regular formal lessons. We expect to return to school for 1pm. Students can wear their own running attire to school for the run but they must change back into their allocated days uniform at school after the trial. We are offering this personal choice of attire so students are running in their most comfortable gear.

Please complete the Online Form to register your child for this event. Without this registration, they will not be able to attend. Registration closes Thursday 29th February 2024.

Boys and girls will compete separately and the age groupings for the trial are as follows:

Age Group	Gender	Distance	Qualifying Time Guide only
8/9 Years combined age group (born 2015/2016)	Boys	2km	Within 13 mins
8/9 Years combined age group (born 2015/2016)	Girls	2km	Within 14 mins
10 Years (born 2014)	Boys	2km	Within 13 mins
10 Years (born 2014)	Girls	2km	Within 14 mins
11 Years (born 2013)	Boys	3km	Within 19 mins
11 Years (born 2013)	Girls	3km	Within 20 mins
12/13 Years age group (born 2012/2011)	Boys	3km	Within 16 mins
12/13 Years age group (born 2012/2011)	Girls	3km	Within 16 mins
Multi-Class All age groups	Boys	2km	Within 16 mins
Multi-Class All age groups	Girls	2km	Within 16 mins

The first 4 placings in each category will make selections for the Cross Country Championships Trial held on Tuesday 14th May 2024, granted they are under the qualifying time.

NFL FLAG FOOTBALL

Flag Football is an Olympic Sport in 2028 and the NFL is putting a lot of resources Worldwide for the promotion of the sport. Our school will be involved in this program which at this point will be targeted at our current year 4, year 5 and year 6 students. Miss Devlin will complete an online course to implement a 6 week program through the PE Syllabus. NFL will also be sending us brand new footballs and 30 flag belts to kickstart this new sport at our school. After the 6 week program our school will look into entering the NSW State Tournament in which the winning team receive a funded trip to Brisbane to compete at the National Cup. The winning primary school of the national cup will continue to receive a funded trip to the Pro Bowl in the US.

We look forward to sharing and promoting this new sport right here at St Pat’s.

SCS INTERSCHOOL SPORT

Sydney Catholic Schools will continue with interschool sport across all Conferences in 2024. The structure for interschool sport is varied in which details will be communicated as we draw closer to the event day. The outline of dates and structure for interschool sport will be shared in the next newsletter.

COMMUNITY SPORT

If you have any sporting news you would like to share with our school community please email me - amanda.col@syd.catholic.edu.au

Canteen News