Primary Sport
Junior Primary Swim Trials
The 2024 Junior Primary Swim Trials were held on the 6th of February at Watermarc Pool. Sixty students, from across Years 3-6, attended the trials. The Swim Trials are an annual qualification event for the District Swimming Carnival and students who attend must be able to independently swim 50m within the strokes they choose to swim in (freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke).
The Swim Trials were an excellent opportunity for the attending students to demonstrate courage; swimming 50m takes some real effort. Many adults find swimming 50m tricky so spare a thought for some students, who are very small and slightly built, who attempt this feat.
I acknowledge all swimmers who attended who gained valuable experience at listening to the starters commands, diving with goggles on, using the flags as a guide during backstroke, and supporting others.
The placegetters, of each event and age group, are listed in the table. We now look forward to the upcoming District Swim Carnival where a number of our students will represent PVCC for the first time.
Junior Primary Water Safety
Our junior primary students participated in the annual Water Safety event, at Diamond Creek Pool, on the 14th of February. This is the third year this event has been held: this event addresses a community need for children to have an increased awareness of safety concepts near, or in, bodies of water.
The event comprised four water safety rotation activities, each facilitated by a qualified swim instructor, where the students engaged in meaningful, relevant water safety, and water confidence, activities. Each year level had a 60-minute activity session.
The four water safety rotations focused on wearing a lifejacket and correct water entry with a life jacket on, survival swim strokes, how to identify someone being in trouble in the water and how to correctly throw a buoyant item to assist that person and to pull them to safety, and a general conversation about recognising safety features at the pool, beach, or river.
Feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive; student engagement was extremely high, and students liked the fact that the activities were non-competitive, inclusive, and great fun. Importantly, all swim abilities were provided for.
Junior Primary District Swimming
An enthusiastic squad of twenty-four students headed to Watermarc pool on the 21st of February to represent themselves, and the College, at the 2024 District Primary Swimming Carnival.
The general atmosphere of the carnival was wonderful, with students from each district school keen to do their very best in the pool as well as cheering hard for their squad mates.
The PVCC swimmers really rose to the occasion, competing against some top-quality swimmers from other schools.
Eight of our swimmers came 4th in their events, demonstrating how well they swam individually, and how close they were to a top 3 position. In one of these instances, the 12/13 Girls 4 x 50m Freestyle relay, two of the swimmers were filling in from the 11 years age group, so this was particularly a great effort.
However, PVCC swimmers did place in a range of events:
Neve D – 3rd 11 Girls Freestyle
Luke C – 2nd 11 Boys Freestyle & 3rd 11 Boys Breaststroke
Noah T – 2nd 11 Boys Backstroke (Noah came second with a time difference of 0.12 of a second to first place!)
Oscar L – 3rd 12/13 Boys Backstroke (Oscar came 3rd with a time difference of half a second to second place!)
Lola K – 3rd 8/9/10 Girls Breaststroke
Amie P – 3rd 12/13 Girls Breaststroke
Luke C, Isaac w, Noah T, Jack F – 3rd 11 Boys 4 x 50m Freestyle relay (Jack filled in from the 8/9/10 years age group)
Sashreek K, Cooper E, Oscar L, Ethan B – 3rd 12/13 Boys 4 x 50m Freestyle relay
It’s also worth noting that Neve D (11 years old) swam in five events over the carnival, two of those in the older 12/13 age group, and came 3rd in one of her events and 4th in another – this mighty effort deserves acknowledgement.
Congratulations to Luke C (Freestyle) and Noah T (Backstroke) who have qualified to represent themselves, and our College, at Division level. All the best to you, boys!
Overall, this year, Apollo Parkways PS were the District swim champions, breaking a stretch of wins in recent years to Greenhills PS. Well done AAPS.
Guy Gurney (Junior Primary PE teacher and Sports coordinator)
