SPORT 

SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY Term 1 Week 9 Wednesday 25th March - John Oxley Sporting Fields 

Get ready to run! Our annual Cross Country event will take place this Wednesday, 25th March, at the John Oxley Sporting Fields.

Students will be running different distances based on the age they turn this year. Our K-2 Infants will tackle the 1km course, while students aged 8 to 10 years (including Year 2 students turning 8) will take on the 2km track. Our senior students aged 11 and 12 will challenge themselves on the 3km course.

Please check Compass for the full event details sent out recently. While the kids are already busy preparing here at school, we’d love for you to encourage their practice at home as well. 

We are incredibly grateful to the parent volunteers helping to make this event happen, and a special thanks to the P&F for hosting a delicious barbecue lunch after the races and presentations. We look forward to a fantastic day!

School Netball Clinics

At the beginning of this school year, we were thrilled to be approved for a Sporting Schools grant! Our original plan was to use these funds for an aquatics program following our school swimming carnival. Unfortunately, with the local pool closed for most of this term, we had to pivot.

We then explored using the grant for gymnastics sessions in Armidale. However, the grant regulations require us to conduct a minimum of four sessions. When we calculated the cost of the gymnastics program plus the expense of bus transport to Armidale four separate times, it sadly exceeded our school budget.

This left us with a difficult decision. Handing the grant money back can unfortunately lead to future Sporting Schools applications being declined. As we are heavily relying on securing this funding next term for an athletics program to help our students prepare for the Athletics Carnival, we did not want to risk our future eligibility.

Therefore, we have decided to use this term's grant to run a Netball program right here on school grounds! These sessions will take place on the 24th, 26th, 30th, and 31st of March.

We acknowledge that this timing isn't entirely ideal, as our School Cross Country is scheduled right in the middle on the 25th of March. However, we are fast running out of dates for the rest of the term that won't disrupt the general operation and academic routine of the school.

We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this busy sporting schedule may cause. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility!

2026 SPORTS DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR

Wednesday 25h March 2026 - School Cross Country

Friday 1st May- Polding Winter Trials (Hockey, Football, Netball and Rugby League at Bathurst)

Friday 22nd May- ACS Cross Country Trials at Barraba.

St Patrick's Primary Sports Handbook

St Patrick's now has an official sports handbook and it has been updated after the school swimming carnival held recently. This book is designed to give all members associated with our school a clearer understanding of when our school conducts our various sporting carnivals, the processes/qualifying times involved for students who want to represent our school at Diocesan sporting events as well as an explanation of the representative sporting pathways your child may want to undertake in their respective sports.