Lifelong Love for Physical Activity

We all know how important it is to keep our bodies and minds healthy and keeping our kids active is a great way to do this. Unfortunately, only 18%–20% of school-aged children meet the full daily 60-minute requirement every single day (Aust Bureau of Stats.). To help children build a lifelong love for physical exercise, focus on fun, unstructured play rather than strict workouts, let them try diverse activities, walk/ride to school, limit screen time to less than an hour and lead by positive personal example.

Core Strategies for Lasting Habits

Prioritise Play: Treat movement as a game rather than a chore. Tag, obstacle courses, and dancing make exercise feel effortless.
Explore Variety: Expose children to different sports, martial arts, swimming, or cycling so they discover what they genuinely enjoy.
Lead by Example: Be active yourself. Children naturally mimic adult behaviours and adopt habits they see at home.
Keep it Low-Pressure: Focus on participation and joy instead of perfection or intense competition.

Preston PS Athletics Carnival

Well done to all students who attended our Preston Primary School House Athletics Carnival held at Coburg Athletics Track last week. We were very lucky for the wet weather to hold off for the day allowing events to run smoothly and safely for our students to enjoy. There were lots of smiles, laughs, and memories created. It really was a day to celebrate being active with all students participating in house games (Take the Hoop, House Memory Tag, 50m Baton Relay, and Tug-of-War) and receiving placing ribbons. House points were calculated throughout the day on these results.

Also a huge congratulations to our students who qualified for the Top 10 events (high jump, long jump, shot put, discus, and 100m sprints). These students competed not only for spots to represent PPS in the upcoming PDPSSA Athletics Carnival in Week 5, but also earning themselves individual points working towards Champion Boy and Girl for their age group for the day.

Results:

Age Group - 9/10

Champion Boy - Owen M - 208 pts, Champion Girl - Maddie K - 140 pts

R/U Champion Boy - Cruz M - 148 pts, R/U Champion Girl - Violet R - 135 pts

Age Group - 11

Champion Boy - Fred ML - 285 pts, Champion Girl - Kora S - 185 pts

R/U Champion Boy - Reed D - 97 pts, R/U Champion Girl - Amaia S - 155 pts

Age Group - 12/13

Champion Boy - Leon B - 127 pts, Champion Girl - Willa P - 152 pts

R/U Champion Boy - William E - 95 pts, R/U Champion Girl - Rhea N - 132 pts

Winning House

1) Bowden - 2245

2) Hanna - 1927

3) Jeffery - 1832

4) Tyler – 1222

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered on the day to help with the smooth running of the event. You are truly amazing!

PDPSSA Interschool Sports

Last term we saw Preston PS make the finals of our winter sports being football, Netball and Teeball.

Football we saw our Boys/Mixed play a strong match against a very talented Reservoir West PS team going down 1-0 to a stunning goal. Our Girls lost to Holy Name PS.

Netball both teams lost in the grand final. Boys/Mixed losing Preston West PS and our Girls to Reservoir West PS. Our Boys/Mixed were invited to play in the Darebin Divisional Finals held at Diamond Valley Sports Centre and faced very tough competition. It was a great experience for the students.

Both our Teeball teams won our district finals against Preston West PS and Preston North East PS. Both teams played a divisional playoff against Thomastown PS where our Boys/Mixed team won and our Girls lost in a close game. The Boys/Mixed team will play at the NMR Regional Finals next week.

Good luck to our Girls hockey team who plays in the NMR Regional finals today.

Run Club

Run Club is a great way to start the day. There are many students still attending even with the colder weather kicking in. It is held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings on the SS oval from 8:45am. Students use their QR Codes collected on the morning and run laps which are scanned into our software and distance is totalled. We call this our Virtual Race.

Term 2 winners:

Grade 2: Jack B 2AD ran 16.8km

Grade 3: Travis M 3AD ran 17.7km

Grade 4: Owen M 4AA ran 11.7km

Grade 5: Violet R 5AC ran 10.2km

Grade 6: Elijah L 6AC ran 5.2km.

Well done to these students.

Thanks again to all our parents who have volunteered throughout the year so far. Your assistance is much appreciated.

Kris Mihal and Lisa Hayes

Artists of the Week

Grade Prep

Grade 1