Celebrating Student Achievement

Stella Takes on Taekwondo Nationals This October

We are so proud to share that Year Three student Stella recently took home gold at multiple Taekwondo competitions! Following her fantastic results, Stella (3SM) will be representing Victoria in her division at the Taekwondo National Championships in Canberra in early October. Congratulations on your incredible achievement Stella! Please join us in wishing her the best of luck at Nationals!!

From ENPS to the AIS: Clarence's Gymnastics Journey to Canberra 

Congratulations to Clarence from Year Five, who has been selected by Gymnastics Australia to attend the prestigious Team Future Camp at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra!

Only 25 gymnasts nationwide were invited to this elite camp, and Clarence was one of them, making him just the second boy in the 21-year history of his club, Essendon Keilor Gymnastics Academy, to earn a spot.

Selection reflects that the Australian Men's Artistic Gymnastics National Head Coach sees genuine long-term potential in Clarence, someone who could one day represent Australia on the international stage.

Held from 21st to 24th of August, the camp saw Clarence train alongside some of Australia's strongest young gymnasts under 14, with access to the same world-class facilities, sports science, nutrition, and support services used by our elite athletes.

At just 10 years old, Clarence won the physical conditioning test across all gymnasts at the camp, including those up to 14 years old.

Athletes selected for Team Future are typically invited back to Canberra two to three times a year, so this is just the beginning of an exciting journey for Clarence.

We are so proud of everything Clarence has achieved through his hard work and determination. Well done, Clarence!

Skiing Triumph for Easton!

It's been a very exciting time for our Year Three skiing superstar! Easton from 3KO has been carving his way through competitions and going from strength to strength on the slopes this term. He has kindly shared his big news with us, offering a wonderful insight to what the sport is all about. Read on to hear all about his journey and experiences at both Interschool and National competition levels...

Hi, I am Easton and I did Victorian snow sports interschools. If you are wondering what interschools is, it is what I compete in for our school. You are trying to take the fastest track on the snow. To get the most speed, you want to be on your edges, and edges are these tiny blades as long as the skis. My dad also waxes the bottom to get the friction as low as possible. He waxes the skis with a hot iron, melting the wax onto the skis, waits a little bit and then scrapes it off. He also sharpens the edges.

For giant slalom, there are flags that are red and blue. Before you go through the flags, you are at the top with a little stick, and when you go through the yellow stick it sends a little electric pulse that starts your time. The starter says, “Racer ready, 3, 2, 1, go,” and then you push with all your might with your poles to speed up as fast as you can. Then you tuck when you go around the first flag to minimise your air resistance. Once you finish all of the flags, you stretch out as far as you can to hit the laser beam, which stops the message from the start and tells your time. This photo is what the tuck looks like.

For one of my giant slalom races, I won the gold medal. I can go to nationals at Perisher in NSW for this race. Skiers cross is the other race I did. I was really close to qualifying for nationals. I finished 12th in Victoria in the heats and then got 22nd in the final, only 0.04 seconds from making it to nationals. For skier cross, there are lumps and bumps that you want to train and gain speed on by pushing down on them when you go down, to get momentum kind of like you do on a swing. There are corners kind of like a BMX track, and you want to get in the lower part of the corner because that is the fastest bit. Then you want to swerve into the next corner.

I went to nationals, a much more bigger and harder competition. For nationals, I only did giant slalom. I had to get my skis on an angle of 50 degrees. That digs into the snow so I can turn without losing speed with the least friction. It took me 7 hours to drive to Perisher. On the way there, going through the Great Dividing Range, we saw a deer with antlers like a moose. It was as big as my car. I saw Australia’s tallest mountain (Mt Kosciuszko). We stayed in a town called Jindabyne, which has a big lake.

My dad knew the starter, and for my race at Perisher the starter says something different to Mt Buller. At nationals (Perisher), the starter says, “Blue course ready, red course ready, attention, go,” and then you go through the stick like at Mt Buller. I pushed so hard in my first run at the start that I came off the ground.

This was my fourth interschools race and third alpine interschools race, and I won the national championship. I felt really happy, surprised, and I get nervous waiting to hear my name called out for the gold medal because it is always the last one and I’m worried that I haven’t got it, even though I was pretty sure I had won because my mum and dad said I had. My friend from my Mt Buller squad saw me from the chairlift and cheered. She also made it to nationals and her sister got third. This was a good season because I have won two gold medals, the only colour I have won.

Would you like to share your child's extra-curricular achievement or an example of your family taking action within our wider community? Please get in touch with our editor at Fran.Milic@education.vic.gov.au. We'd love to hear from you.