Early Years Athletics Carnival

On Monday 29 May, the year Prep, 1 & 2 students participated in the Early Years Athletics Carnival. It was a wonderful morning with the students getting to be active, perform and practice some of the fundamental motor skills they have been learning in Physical Education this year.

The Year 6 captains also did a fantastic job setting up, organising and facilitating the event. At each activity, outstanding students were awarded with House points when they demonstrated the school values. These House points will be added up and announced at the next Primary assembly. Well done to everyone involved!

Jump Rope for Heart

At school, students received opportunities to skip, with short and long ropes, within PE lessons, and during brain break opportunities within class time.

Students are also encouraged to skip at home; indeed, skipping is a lot of fun for the whole family. Having a short, and/or long, rope at home will be of perpetual benefit; the following link gives great tips on how to identify how long a rope should be How Long Should My Jump Rope Be? - My Jump Rope Workout and this is the rope measurement process we teach at school.

All fundraising, and recording of participation, are done by students and parents via a family portal which is linked to our college JRFH platform. Please follow this link www.jumprope.org.au/parents to register your child/children for the JRFH. There is no expectation that your child registers via the link, however, we have set some goals to achieve during our 5-week skipping focus: $4,500 in raised funds and 40 cumulative, recorded, hours of skipping by our students. Our JRFH skipping focus will end by Friday 9 June.

Sally Donaldson

Primary PE - Early Years

Junior Primary Sport – District Cross Country

District Cross Country carnival was held, for Junior Primary students, on Thursday 18 May, at Eltham Lower Park.

This district event is a true carnival – around 550 students, possibly 70 staff and then the 150+ community members who come to support their children and their schools; it is a big event!

PVCC had 58 students representing the college across all age groups; each student had earned the right to participate due to their top ten finish at our school cross country carnival, and each student did the best they could, in their event, at the district cross country carnival.

I acknowledge the students and their great PVCC community spirit, their appropriate carnival behaviour, and their support of one another regardless of age.

The front oval, where runners began their events, was wet and muddy, in part due to recent rain, and poor drainage. As well, another district carnival that had been held the day before and the ground was chopped up a bit from those athletes. The runners then left the oval to complete their event on the local trail.

Each event had between 70-90 runners in them, and PVCC runners performed admirably against large numbers of other runners, some of whom are very talented at cross country/middle distance running.

Well done to all our participants and I encourage them to maintain some jogging practice in order to be prepared for next year’s school, and subsequent district, cross-country events.

In particular, I acknowledge the below three runners who have qualified for the Division Cross Country event to be held on 1st June. Each of these three runners ran bravely to finish in the top ten of their particular events:

Mila C – 3rd in the 9/10 girls event (as a point of interest, Mila was the second youngest runner, and one of only two Year 3 students, in the top ten of this event)

Amie P – 3rd in the 11 girls event

Jackson W – 5th in the 11 boys event (Jackson was the second youngest runner in the top ten of this event)

Junior House Athletics Carnival

We held our Junior House Athletics carnival on Tuesday 2 May. This day provided magnificent weather for our carnival, and our students rotated through eight events. Inherently, carnivals at school are a qualification pathway for District events, and this was no exception for our athletics carnival. However, school events are absolutely about participation, engagement and peer support; an opportunity for all students to be actively involved in the events in order to do their best effort.

To this end, two of the eight events were rather unique. One event was a skipping opportunity to support the Jump Rope for Heart program that PVCC is participating within. The skipping had an emphasis on cooperation and whole group enjoyment; there were no ribbons given for this event as this event was based around collaboration and inclusion. Another event was a novelty relay whereby the students, in their age groups, operated within their house groupings; at this event, ribbons were given to all students depending on where their house finished.

This meant that each student earned a ribbon for the contribution they made to their house team regardless of their athletic ability. In many instances, this was the only ribbon that some students earned, and I can assure you they wore their ribbon with pride because they knew they had influenced the final result with their effort.

NOTE #1: the 8/9/10 years age group contains many students. To make the carnival run smoothly, this age group was split into an 8/9 years age group, and a 10 years age group and they operated independently throughout the carnival. As a result, ribbons were awarded to the students within those two split groups. However, for District qualification, the results for both groups were collated.

NOTE #2: generating a team for District Athletics is not a simple process; at District Athletics, students can compete in only two individual events, and one relay event. Consequently, some students, who placed first in multiple events, get the option to choose the individual events they wish to participate in. This then influences who else, in the age group, may represent the college in a particular event. The District Athletics team will be shared in due course.

Many thanks to PVCC staff, and our wonderful parent volunteers as well as PVCC secondary school student helpers, for their amazing efforts in managing the various events. I am grateful for your support of the carnival, and the primary students.

We are yet to hold our 800m and 1500m, and High Jump, events which also allow qualification for District Athletics. These events will be optional, rather than having a compulsory aspect – further information will follow.

Due to these optional events, the House Champions have been determined by the results, and student participation. Each student who participated in an event earned one house point for their house. Placings earned a greater number of points, awarded on a sliding scale.

Therefore, I am pleased to announce CRICHTON HOUSE as the athletics champions for 2023.

Well done to all students for strong participation.

Guy Gurney

Primary PE - Junior Years

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