Registrations are open!

As I drive down the expressway to school each day, I’m met with bold fonts and toothy faced grins spread across the many advertisements for school team sports.

It brings a nostalgic ache for the winter chilled fingers quickly warmed by early Saturday netball games at Arawang. Afternoon Hockey played alongside the tower of school bags littering the sideline. The sounds of AFL whistles and Soccer Coach pep-talks always background noise to the sweetness of sticky half time frozen orange wedges.

All of these childhood moments that can’t be captured in the signs that zoom past during the morning rush hour. These moments, however, can be passed down to our children for them to experience.

While our focus as kids might have been on the bag of snakes passed around, or the feeling of our sweat covered friends diving on us after a try, we were also experiencing the immense social, emotional, and mental benefits of playing a team sport.

Regardless of the sport or participant’s skill level, on a biological level, active bodies produce endorphins – naturally occurring chemicals scientifically proven to improve our mood, reduce stress, relieve feelings of anxiety and depression, boost self-esteem, and help us sleep better.

Being a Mum of three now adult children, I found that playing a team sport also taught both them and myself three important guiding values:

1. Respect for coaches, teammates, opponents, umpires, and officials;
2. Self-Regulation when learning to play, reflecting on our actions on and off the field, and following the rules of the sport;
3. Empathy when working alongside other players, celebrating someone’s wins, and spreading positivity and compassion to those who need it.

In School, the PE Curriculum aims to achieve these through cooperative games in Kinder to more competitive sports in Years 5 – 6 such as Football, Rugby, AFL and Netball.

Luckily, long gone are the days of playing against the same teams, as there are now many opportunities to represent the school, Tuggeranong district, and state across various sporting codes.

Registration for team sports are now open! Let your children and yourselves explore the joy of team sports together – sticky fingers and all!

Constable Kenny Visit

Constable David Packwood AKA Kenny Constable Koala visited St Clare’s last week to share some very important information with our Year 5’s about how to keep safe online, instant messaging and ‘chat’ and social media.