How Physical Activity Stimulates our Brains for Learning!

Research over the years has indicated that physical activity improves academic results. Charles Basch from Columbia University summarised how the brain is positively impacted by being active by:

The flow of oxygen to the brain is increased
The number of brain neurotransmitters is increased, which assists your ability to focus, concentrate, learn, remember and handle stress
The number of brain-derived neurotrophins is increased, which assures the survival of neurons in areas of the brain that are responsible for learning, memory and higher thinking.

Unfortunately, only 1 in 5 young people between the ages of 5 to 14 meet their daily requirements of physical activity (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). Over the past few years here at PPS, we have tried to make physical activity opportunities for families more convenient and affordable to ensure children can reap the benefits. These currently include:

Run Club (Mon, Tues and Thurs – Senior Campus)
AFL Clinics (Mon 3:35pm – Junior Campus)
KIDDO FMS activities (Prep & Year 1 – online portal)
WOW Tuesday (Walk or Wheels to school)
Rump Rope For Heart (starting soon!)

If you need more information or are needing assistance with physical activities for your child, please get in touch.

AFL Victoria Clinics

Last week AFL Victoria came in to run AFL clinics for our students to promote their afterschool clinics held on Monday afternoons at the JS. Students from Grades 3 – 6 participated in various AFL activities based on inclusion and fun.

A great way to encourage our students to take up our number one sporting code. If your child is interested, AFL Vic are still taking registrations for the clinics. Please see the flyer attached for enrolment details.

Cross Country

This term we held our PPS Cross Country Carnival. The focus of the event was to maximise participation among all students. Sometimes when students face the idea of long-distance running, they may be turned off and look to avoid it. With so many events in our community and Australia wide now being classed as fun runs, it was easy to promote this idea to students to just enjoy their time being active with friends for the morning.

All students that attended school that morning took part with the event being a success. As part of these fun runs there is also the competitive side where students aim to qualify to represent PPS at the district cross country event.

Thank you to all the parent volunteers that assisted with the event. We really do appreciate your efforts.

Congratulations to Thomas B, Ruby S, Jackson C, Rhea N, George A and Rosie M. The PDPSSA District Cross Country will be held at Parade College on Friday 23rd May.

Good luck to all students competing. Unfortunately Parade College has requested that no spectators be present on the day.

Lap-A-Thon

This year to compliment the cross-country event being held at the Senior Campus, we held a Lap-A-Thon event for our Prep and Grade 1 students.

This event was created to build a love for running in a fun way. Students came out in their classes where they had 10 minutes to run as many laps as possible around a set out course. Students held lap cards and received smiley face emoji stickers every time they completed a lap. The event was a great success and was really eye opening how far our students can run, some covering almost as much territory as our 9/10 age group cross country event.

Once again, thank you to all the parent volunteers that assisted to make the event implementation successful and a big shout out to all the parents who came to spectate. It would have made your child’s day seeing you supporting them!

Community Partnerships

This year we are inviting sporting clubs into the school to run clinics at PPS before or after school. The concept behind this is for students to take up sport outside of school and engage in the community.

These clinics will give students the opportunity to get a feel for different sports and recognise if it is something they wish to pursue further. Previously we have used funding to bring coaches in, but we really would like to encourage our local sporting clubs to bring in volunteer coaches to promote their club and build enrolments.

If you are interested, please let us know and we will arrange our timetable to suit your availability.

Thank you

Kris Mihal and Lisa Hayes

Artists of the Week

Grade Prep

Grade 1