PE and Health
Melbourne Girls' College
To borrow a well-used sporting analogy, it has been a big off-season for the Health and PE faculty, with lots of planning and innovation being conducted in late-Term 4, as well as some staff changes ahead of 2025. We thanked and farewelled our Head of Sport, Bryony Exner, and welcomed current PE/Maths teacher Dan DeGois into the role. We also added to the Health and PE team by welcoming Kyle Monaghan and Corey Sewell.
One of our strengths as a faculty is to continuously adapt and innovate our curriculum to meet the physical, social, and emotion needs of our students. Some of the latest examples are:
Acquiring a $1,500 Sporting Schools grant for the purchase of 6 new tennis Hot Shots nets, 30 new racquets, and plenty of low bounce balls to allow us to run even more fun and engaging lessons
We recently purchased a set of electronic timing gates, which will add to the accuracy and engagement of our fitness tests.
We have diversified our Year 9 Badminton Unit with the purchase of Pickleball and Speedminton sets
Our Year 10 PE program, now in its second year, exposes students to a wider variety of non-traditional physical activities, such as: Circus skills, Breakdance and Hip Hop, Lawn Bowls, Self-defence, SEPEP, as well as group fitness classes at the local Richmond Recreation Centre.
Some other highlight to start the year off are:
Kicking off the year in PE/Health as students get to know their new classmates, and the activities and units they will be involved with this year. Although the weather has been hot at times, this has not deterred the students from participating fully in all classes and enjoying the classes.
Year 7 and 8 are involved in fitness testing and are currently challenging themselves personally to do the best they can and feel proud of what they achieve. Doing your best and feeling proud of their efforts is a message that is consistently given to all PE classes. The Year 7’s and 8’s are also moving onto athletics events in preparation for the athletics sports on March 25th.
Year 9’s will soon be given an induction of our Fitness Centre, and taught about how they can develop their own fitness programs. This means that until the end of Year 12, students will be able to have full access to our cardio and weights room during out-of-class times, providing they are dressed appropriately and have notified a present PE teacher.
Our elective program is also now in full swing. The senior Outdoor Education class spent 4 days hiking around Wilson’s Prom, the Year 10s are soon off to Anglesea on their Surf Camp, and the Year 9’s will hike the Great Ocean Walk in Term 2. The Introduction to Exercise Physiology class are preparing to push their bodies at Fitness XO in Richmond as a part of their unit on developing fitness programs, while the Sports Action Management class are looking forward to beginning their AFL Umpiring Course in Term 2.
Andrew Fero-Kovassy
Head of Health and PE
Congratulations State Representatives!
A huge well done to Zoe Tarras 7M3, Amelia Butson 10C and Olivia Thompson 11M3 who have all either qualified or been selected to represent Victoria in their respective sports!
Zoe competed in the Victorian State karate championships on the weekend and achieved a Gold in teams Kata, Silver in individual Kata and Bronze in Kumite, and will now represent Victoria at the National Championships in July.
Amelia and Olivia have both been selected to represent Victoria in lacrosse at the upcoming U18 National Championships in Adelaide over Easter. Olivia will be playing in the Victorian Team and Amelia has been selected to captain the Victoria A Development team and is an alternate for the Victorian team.
Huge achievements from you all – we know how much work it takes to excel at this level and are super proud of you! All the best for your upcoming competitions – go MGC!
Ms. Carre and the HPE Team