At Kangaroo Valley Public School, our staff take immense pride in offering a diverse and enriching array of extracurricular activities that complement our academic curriculum and enhance the school experience for all of our students. As we know, these special days are what we all remember most of our time at school, as well as the teachers who helped foster our special skills or talents.
As a small school, offering such a range of options for our students often means that many of our staff take on multiple roles, extra lunch and recess training sessions and many hours before and after school preparing for events. Thank you to all of our teachers, support staff and volunteers who organise these opportunities, encourage our kids to do their best and most of all provide lots of fun!
In many of the schools we compete against, there are more students per grade than our entire school enrolment, so they have lots of students to choose from to make up their soccer, netball, cricket, tennis, chess and debating teams or to select talented artists, musicians and singers. This means students are selected by talent, often meaning they represent the school in their special skill once or twice through the year.
With only 25 students in Years 5 and 6, we often have our younger students in Years 3 and 4 stepping up and competing against much older students. What amazes me is how we have such a small cohort of students who are talented in so many different areas, often putting their hand up to be in a range of different teams, then being competitive against much larger schools.
Our students have so many wonderful opportunities to look forward to in Term 3 with a film making workshop hosted here at KVPS, a Small Schools Creative Arts Camp, Inspired by Nature Visual Arts Enrichment Day at the Royal National Park and Canberra Camp for our Year 5 and 6 students.
We look forward to sharing these photos with you in the next edition, but here are some of the sporting and extracurricular activities from Term 2.
Jen Arnott
Principal
Kangaroo Valley PS
Primary Schools Chess Competition
Our school chess teams competed in the Primary Chess Competition at Nowra Christian School.
South Coast Softball Championships – by Juliet Mumm
Last week I got to attend the NSW School Sport Games at Blacktown International Sportspark and here is my summary of the week.
Day 1: The first day was the hardest one for the team because we were still finding our rhythm. This was the first time some of us had ever played softball because we might have been chosen because we had transferrable talents from other sports like tennis and cricket. We played three games and lost them all, but we were still having fun and started building up our team spirit. Another positive factor was getting to play at the Olympic Diamond 1 Stadium where I caught a batter out on the full from third base.
Day 2: This was an early 7.30am start with the team photos on the Olympic Diamond 1, then we headed to Diamond 4 and didn’t know that we would have a draw against Hunter, 3–3! Between our three games on Day 2 we walked to the NSWSSG Hub together as a team and got to buy some merchandise.
Day 3: Day 3 of the state competition was our biggest and most successful day yet. On days 1 and 2 we played three games on both days, but on day 3 we played four and finished at 7.30 pm. Today I caught one player out at first base. I got a double play at second base, catching a player out on the full and tagging another player. And I got four runs home at the end of the day. Three out of four of my runs were slides – that being where you slide across the dirt and touch home base. On night three we had our first victory, which was against North Coast. South Coast beat North Coast 10–3. And I couldn’t wait to get back to class and share my news. By this stage in the comp, we were beating last year’s record for South Coast with a win and a draw, as last year’s result was one win in the whole competition.
Day 4: After three days together, we had gotten into the groove, picked up the chanting and cheers and team spirit, and I got so close with my team. We played two games on Thursday and won our 12th and final game of the week against McKillop 8–7. So in total, we had one draw and two wins and in the end South Coast were placed equal 10th with North Coast.
PSSA Tennis Knockout Regional Finalists
This year, our KVPS school tennis team has been achieving great results on court. Our team consisting of Daisy, Juliet, Abbey, Matilda, Logan, Artie and Will reached the PSSA tennis knockout South Coast regional finals!
We have reached the finals for three years in a row now and have always been up against Milton PS for a spot in the Sydney state finals event.
Unfortunately, they were the better team on the day this year, but our team fought very hard, and it was a close battle.
Congratulations to the kids on getting this far! It’s a great achievement for a small school. A big thank you to the parents for their support and transport; to Jan for her coaching and wisdom and to Lyn for arranging all the matches and supporting tennis in Kangaroo Valley.
Kate Hole
Coach
KVPS Girls PSSA Football – Round 4 Match Report
On Wednesday morning, the KVPS Girls Football team took on Nowra Public School in the fourth round of the PSSA competition.
Facing a much older and more experienced team – with most players from Years 5 and 6 – our girls showed incredible courage, skill and teamwork. Despite the age and size difference, they matched their opponents across the park in a thrilling and tightly contested game, eventually going down 1–0 in a very close finish.
To say I’m proud of the girls is an understatement. They were simply outstanding and an absolute joy to coach. No matter how tough the opposition, they gave it everything – showing determination, resilience and wonderful team spirit.
They are a credit to their parents and should be immensely proud of how they represented the school – with honour, positivity and excellent sportsmanship throughout.
Well done, girls!
George Fallah
Coach
South Coast Regional Cross Country Championships
Congratulations to our team of runners who represented KVPS and our Small Schools at the Regional Cross Country Championships.
Small Schools Athletics Carnival
We had a great day at the Small Schools Athletics Carnival in Kiama, competing alongside Terara, Falls Creek, Nowra Hill and Greenwell Point Public Schools.
