Sport News

Mr Stuart McSwan | K - 6 Sport Co-ordinator

CIS Primary Swimming

Congratulations to both our Junior Girls and Junior Boys 4x50m Freestyle Relay teams who competed at the CIS Swimming Carnival in Sydney last Thursday. This is a wonderful achievement for these teams to even qualify for this event and they did our school, Zone and CSSA proud.

Junior Girls Team

Cleo M, Taya K, Bella L and Chloe L

Junior Boys Team

Archer H, Moses P, Kyle M, James C

Well done to both these teams on a huge effort and thank you to the parents for travelling down to Sydney for this event. A special mention and thanks to Emily R and Jake B who were unable to attend on the day but played a big part in the qualification.

CSSA Triathlon/Duathlon

On Thursday seven super-fit athletes from GPCC Primary competed at the CSSA and HZSA Schools Triathlon/Duathlon in Penrith. We were represented by 2 teams made up of Nate R, Andrew S, UIrich E from Year 6 and Alex K and Javier G from Year 3 as well as two individual competitors Evie N and Owen B both from Year 6.

In extremely wet conditions, all of these students performed astonishingly well with all finishing inside the top 10. They can be very proud of their effort and represented the College with pride. Thank you to the parents who travelled with the students for the day.

Teams Event

Andrew S, Nate R and Ulrich E- 1^st place overall in the 5/6 Boys Relay (200m swim, 5km cycle, 2km run)

Javier G and Alex K- 2^nd place overall in the 3/4 Boys Relay (1km run, 3km cycle, 500m run)

Individual Event

Owen B- 9^th overall in the Primary Boys individual event (200m swim, 5km cycle, 2km run)

Evie N- 10^th overall in the Junior Girls individual event (200m swim, 5km cycle, 2km run)

Primary Athletics Carnival

We are looking forward to our Primary Athletics Carnival on Friday 3 May. Please refer to Parent Lounge for more details.

During PE lessons over the last few weeks, we have been practicing skills for shot put, discus, sprinting and long jump.

I still require many parent helpers for the day so if you can assist then please let me know.

Please see below an important announcement from the Mingara Athletics Centre regarding use of debit cards at the canteen:

We have an important update around the use of Junior debit cards. Unfortunately, as we are linked to a licensed facility banks are declining these cards. We are working with Spriggy at the moment to see if we can get an exception however until then, these types of cards will decline.

Once we have an update, we will communicate the outcome and apologies for the inconvenience. This is currently out of our control, and we are working hard to try and rectify this issue.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

Dates for your Calendar

School Carnivals

TERM 2

Friday 3 May - GPCC Primary Yrs 2-6 Athletics Carnival (Mingara)

TERM 3

Wednesday 21 August - GPCC K-2 Athletics Carnival (GPCC grounds)

TERM 4

Friday 25 October - GPCC K-2 Swimming Carnival (Peninsula Leisure Centre)

Representative Carnivals

TERM 2

Friday 31 May - CSSA Primary and Secondary State Cross Country Carnival (Sydney Equestrian Centre)

Thursday 6 June - CIS Primary and Secondary Cross Country

TERM 3

Tuesday 6 August - THACCCSA Zone Primary Athletics Carnival (Glendale)

Friday 23 August - CSSA Primary State Athletics Carnival (Blacktown)

Friday 6 September - CIS Primary Athletics Carnival

GPCC Sport Teams

We are looking forward to sending our teams to a number of Gala Days and competitions in Primary this year.

Students will have a chance to trial for certain school teams over the coming terms and will need to keep a close eye on the notices and listen out for Assembly announcements for when trials will be held.

The protocol for team selection is as follows:

Teams have at least 2-3 trials before final selection.
Unfortunately, it is simply not possible for all children who trial to be included in final teams. It is not uncommon for up to 60 students to trial for a team that only has 10 spots available. Due to these limited spots, it is highly likely that students will miss out on making the team. We acknowledge that we have a number of skilled athletes who trial for these representative teams and we strive to give opportunity during trials for students to demonstrate their skills.
Once teams have been chosen, they will aim to have at least one training session each week before a competition.

Individual Sport Trials for Primary CSSA and CIS Teams (NOT GPCC teams)

These trials are not for GPCC school teams that we trial for here at school to play at certain gala days throughout the year (as mentioned above). The CSSA or CIS trials are usually held in Sydney and students will be trialling against students from either other Christian Schools (CSSA) or other Independent Schools (CIS) and are usually recommended for those students that compete at a representative level.

Please email Mr McSwan before these Nomination dates if your child (YEARS 5 AND 6 ONLY) would like to be considered. They need to be currently playing in the sport and have several years’ experience (preferably at a Representative level): Parents are required to transport students to and from these trials.

CSSA and CIS Sport trial dates: Please note these are not for GPCC school teams.

TERM 2

Monday 13 May - CIS Primary Boys and Girls Hockey Trials (select students)- Nominations close Monday 6 May

Monday 13 May - CIS Primary Rugby League Trials (select students)- Nominations close Monday 6 May

Tuesday 11 June - CSSA Primary State Gymnastics Levels 3+ Only (select students) All competitors are required to have an accredited gymnastics coach from their club attend on the day- Nominations close Tuesday 28 May

Wednesday 19 June - CIS Primary Rugby Union Trials #1 (select students) - Nominations close Wednesday 12 June

CSSA (Christian Schools Sports Association) Child Protection training and Risk Warning

CSSA have recommended that all adults (teachers, volunteers, parents) complete the following module on Child Protection before attending any CSSA event (trials, gala days or carnivals). Thank you

https://www.cssa.net.au/child_protection/index.html#/

Below is a link for the Risk Warning that accompanies all CSSA run events

https://cssa.net.au/risk-warning.html

Mr Chris Harris | Years 7 - 12 Sport Co-ordinator

U15 Boys Soccer Team

On Wednesday 3 April during lunch time, our boys U15’s soccer team played the preliminary round of the Central Coast Region of the state wide knock out competition the “Bill Turner Cup”. This is the first time in a while that GPCC have entered this competition. We were drawn against Kariong Mountains High and they graciously chose to play the game on our school oval. All of the 18 GPCC boys played extremely well and we came away with a 5-0 win. The competition continues quickly as our boys (and girls) play Brisbane Water Secondary College, Umina Campus, on Monday of next week at their school oval. Well done to the players and coach Mr Partridge for organising the team.

CSSA Triathlon

On Thursday 4^th April, 13 students arrived at Sydney’s International Regatta Centre to represent GPCC in the CSSA Triathlon. We had multiple students compete in the individual races as well as a few students creating teams to compete in the teams’ event. First up, we had the Junior individual races. Xavier W had an absolute ball out on the course and finished 13^thin the Junior Boys, whilst in the same race, Jason P had a great race to finish 4^th. Following the juniors, was the intermediate girl’s race. Where we saw Ariella N have a very strong race to claim 2^nd place. Finally, it was the senior boys. And we had the pleasure to witness one of the great battles between Owen P and Liam Ab. The two pushed each other to their limits to finish 9^th and 10^th. Also in the same race, Caleb N had a near perfect race to claim 3^rd place.

Now it was time for the team’s event. We had three teams that consisted of – Junior Boys: Reef M Xavier W & Levi S. Junior Girls: Isabelle R, Alex H & Quinn L. And finally, our Intermediate Girls: Felicity R, Ariella N & Zoe H.

All three teams were extremely confident and nervous to race but had their best race faces on. Our Junior Boys had a very strong race against some tough competition to finish in 11^th place. Reef M had a very strong swim exiting the water in the top 5 who then passed on the responsibilities to Xavier W who ventured out onto the bike course to put in a solid time to finally pass the baton to Levi S who had a very strong run to finish the race.

Our Junior Girls had an outstanding race to just edge out their competition by 12 seconds to win gold! Isabelle R was in the lead group of swimmers and exited the waters in third to then outsprint her competition in the transition area before tapping in Alex H to set out on the bike. Alex had a great ride before finally passing off to Quinn who had a very strong run to hold onto first place and consolidate the gold medal.

Finally, our Intermediate Girls. Felicity had a clear game plan and knew what she needed to do in the swim. From the siren, Felicity took off with purpose and found herself in the lead group. Just narrowly behind first and second, Felicity exited the water in third and passed on her duties to Ariella N. Ariella had another strong bike leg, holding her speed and making moves throughout the field. After a quick 10km, it was time for Zoe H to run the team home. Zoe had a face of determination like no other and ran like it may be the last time she ever ran. The three crossed the line together and all the spectators were checking times franticly until the results were confirmed and the girls had won gold by an emphatic 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

Mr Read and Mr Partridge were extremely proud of all the students and their efforts, especially those who were out of their comfort zones for the first time. Hopefully this is the dawn of a new triathlon era at GPCC.

Mr Partridge