Specialist News 

HOUSE ATHLETICS CARNIVAL (F-2) - CHANGES TO THE SCHEDULED STRUCTURE

Unfortunately due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, we’ve had to make some executive decisions to re-structure this year’s House Athletics Carnival. This is to ensure we can plan effectively for the safety of our students whilst also providing an alternative opportunity for students to still participate. At this stage, Division Athletics in September is set to proceed and subsequently the Balaclava District Athletics Carnival is hoping to occur in August. Therefore, it is imperative that we have a Ripponlea (ages 9-13 years) team ready to go. 

To achieve this, students in Years 3-6 will participate in a range of athletic events and trials at school such as high jump, long jump, triple jump, 800m, and 1500m. These will take place during P.E. lessons and lunchtime Athletics club during Wednesday lunchtimes in Term 3. Our student leaders are ready to support lunchtime club activities and are excited to have Ripponlea represented at the districts. 

Events such as discus and shot put will take place offsite due to safety regulations and proper venues to facilitate these trials. If we are able to secure a suitable venue we will conduct further track and field events e.g. 100m, 200m, long jump, triple jump, 800m, 1500m. 

If you or your child believe that they are capable of representing our school in an athletics discipline and is aged 9-13 years old (as of December 31st 2020), please register your interest here .The deadline for registering interest is Friday 17th July, Term 3. The numbers of registered interest will determine the logistics for offsite trials. 

We are of course disappointed that we are unable to run a 3-6 Carnival offsite this year. We are hoping (date T.B.C.) to run an onsite House F-2 Athletics Carnival on the oval with our School House Captains as in previous years. Stay tuned for more information. 

P.E. LEARNING - REFLECTING AND UPCOMING WITH MISS JO

Despite the challenges imposed by COVID-19, I couldn’t have been more impressed with how our students adapted to online P.E. learning and then transitioned back to onsite school learning. Though we made some changes to our Year 3-6 programme and flipped our Term 4 fitness teaching and learning with our planned Term 2 striking and fielding game sense, we have learned: how the body responds to exercise; the health and skill components of fitness; and hopefully identified some activities of keeping our bodies and hearts strong at home. Here are a few of the students' favourite activities based on feedback that you can try over the holidays, as well as a link for healthy living: 

• Dice Fitness
• Tabata
• Uno Fitness
• Kick Bowling
• https://livelighter.com.au/

This has also been a great lead into our athletics teaching and learning where we can expand on the fitness requirements necessary for track and field events. This also then prepares us for a possible District Athletics competition in Term 3, with an onsite House Athletics competition. A team of students in Years 5/6 are currently working towards creating a display which shows ‘Ripponlea Track and Field Records’ to boost competition and present a way of tracking house points and age group placings for our onsite Athletics competition. In addition, our Year 3-6 students will explore the game strategies involved in net and wall games, so get ready for tennis, badminton, table tennis, volleyball and speedminton opportunities in P.E. Years 3/4 will participate in T ball for SEPEP. 

In F-2 students learned the skill sequence involved in soccer kicking and AFL punting. We found some innovative ways to kick if we didn’t have a soccer or AFL ball and modified our target practices using laundry baskets and objects around our home. We have consolidated this learning in the last few weeks and it’s safe to say we potentially have some future soccer and AFL players. I will be sharing a skill assessment app called ‘Skillhouettes’ with you all in Term 3 which is a great way to track how our students are progressing in each fundamental movement skill.

Students in F-2 will now engage in the athletic disciplines of running, jumping and throwing to hopefully participate in an athletics carnival in Term 3. In addition, students will move onto the skills of chest passing and catching. To give this skill a go, check out the how to here and start practising. As always practising catching and other fundamental skills (soccer, AFL) as much as we can will always help us get better.