Around Grade 3/4

This term in 3/4 we have been learning all about biographies. 3/4B decided to interview Jo and write a biography about her amazing life. We questioned her with a different group of students asking questions on each category of her life, and took down notes. Then everyone helped by writing a structured component on one section. We put the best of our paragraphs together and formed the biography below.

Jo Metcalfe

D.O.B.  13/4/1969

Nationality: Australian

Height:  182cm (6 foot)

High School: Mitchell Park/Dickson College

WNBL: 1986- 2000 (272 games)

Position: Forward/Centre

Number: 12

Appearances for Australia: 100+

Joanne Marie Metcalfe (Moyle) (born 13, April, 1969) is a former professional basketball player who played for the Melbourne Tigers in the WNBL and for the Australian Junior & Senior National teams.

CHILDHOOD

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Jo grew up in Marion. She attended

Marion Primary School where, during inter-school sports, she began playing basketball. Her other hobbies included: athletics, calisthenics, swimming and cooking.

FAMILY LIFE

Jo’s parents are Robert and Janice (Bob and Jan). She has an older sister, Karen and a younger brother, Shaun. Karen also played sport at a high level, representing South Australia in the 1500m in athletics. Her parents enjoyed sports but were actually not into basketball that much. Jo is married to Steve Metcalfe who is a former Australian badminton champion. Together, they have two children, Kayla and Nikki. Kayla plays netball and Nikki plays college basketball in the US at Arkansas Tech University. 

PLAYING CAREER

Jo had a successful playing career lasting over 15 years. At the age of 15, Jo spent three years at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) in Canberra. When she was 18, Jo moved back to South Australia to play in the WNBL for West Adelaide. After two years playing for West Adelaide, Jo moved to Victoria where she played for the Melbourne Tigers and Bulleen Boomers. She finished her career at the age of 30, playing for the Melbourne Tigers and retired because of constant knee injuries. Jo represented Australia for four years from 1992 to 1996. She played in the Olympic qualification in 1992 where they lost by only a few points, failing to qualify for the Games.  Although the Opals made the Olympics in 1996, Jo was not selected in the team. 

COACHING

After retiring from basketball, Jo began her coaching career. Her first coaching role was with her children at the age of 5 when playing for the Warrandyte Redbacks. She continued coaching the Warrandyte Redbacks for 22 seasons. Her other coaching role was as an assistant coach for the Melbourne Tigers Youth Team where she helped coach them to a grand final, unfortunately losing. 

HONOURS AND AWARDS

Jo has received many honours and awards throughout her successful basketball career. She won the MVP in an U16 national tournament playing for South Australia. In 1991, she was the top scorer and the MVP in the WNBL as well as being voted in the All-Star five. She then received a bronze medal at the U21’s World Championships, Australia’s first ever medal in basketball of any kind. In 2018 she was Inducted into the Melbourne Tigers’ Hall of Fame. Jo is also a lifetime member of the WNBL, having played more than 250 games. 

OFF THE COURT

As well as being a WNBL basketball player, Jo also wanted to do many other things, such as coaching, being a mum and working. Jo has had many jobs like working for Bakers Delight and Coles as well as being a school secretary at A. C. P.S [Andersons Creek Primary School], her current job. Last but not least, Jo has lots of exciting things like having her own swap card (the first ever female card), being interviewed on the radio and having newspapers articles written about her in the Warrandyte Diary.

The purpose of Information Texts is to uncover information about a subject area and to educate the reader about that specific topic. Grade 3/4Z have been putting their research skills to good use during their library sessions and have been completing Passion Projects around topics of interest. 

Passion projects can bring new friendships to students who find they have like interests.

The library provides our class with the perfect environment for topic discovery and sharing of topic knowledge.

We are surrounded by an abundance of texts and topics about our world!