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The store room awakened, as the equipment took a breath The air swept through all crisp and fresh At Mernda Park the school term is ready So students and staff get back to routine steady Starting in Term 1 we are daring you all To BE RESPONSIBLE about things, both big and small Still using the values that show we CARE We will demonstrate our rights and how to be fair To work together To be considerate and kind To do your absolute best Being responsible makes us shine SO I DARE YOU TO BE RESPONSIBLE in 2023 To build yourself and your potential, to become the person that you can be! SUSIE ;) TERM 1 INTERSCHOOL SPORTThis year with our numbers growing across the Senior School in YYLC, we will be running an Alternate Sports Program for the students who do not go to Interschool Sport on the day. Grade 5/6 students will be competing against schools in the Bridge Inn North District in the following sports this term: BASKETBALL, T20 CRICKET & TEEBALL. (Cricket Home Games will be played at Waterview Reserve, Mernda.) DISTRICT: SWIMMING GALA: LAWN BOWLS INTERSCHOOL SPORT FIXTURE
TERM 1 BRIDGE INN NORTH DISTRICT EVENT & GALA DAY SCHEDULE
2022...in an instant and a blink of an eye it is done! And what a year it was! DARING TO CARE saw our values being taught through PE and our Specialist programs across different curriculums. Swimming, Interschool Sport, the introduction of Sports Club, District Gala Days, Colour Run, Cross Country, Mini Athletics Morning, Athletics Carnival, Health & PE Day, Footy/Team Colours Day and our new Sports Equipment borrowing system caps of what has been an enormous, active and fun filled year at Mernda Park Primary School. I appreciate every ounce of effort, motivation and energy that students and staff bring with them on a daily basis and make my job a pleasure each and every day. Here's wishing you a safe and happy holidays. Looking forward to Above and Beyond in 2023. The pleasure has been all mine. Susie ;)  It was Thursday 18th of August on a cold, windy morning. Everyone was going to Athletics where our events were awaiting us. Everyone had some nervous feelings inside, everyone wanting to come home with a Blue, Red or Green Ribbon saying 1st, 2nd or 3rd. The anticipation was growing on the bus ride. As we arrived, I was expecting it to be warm and sunny, but instead it was freezing cold and cloudy. The wind was howling, whipping everyones hair. As the day went on, events were raced, ran and completed. The conditions were not perfect, however our resilience was very obvious. All MPPS students had a successful day in the very unpleasant conditions. We showed determination and perseverance to complete the events in front of us and had our most successful meet yet. Six students from Mernda Park progressed through to Division in their successful events. What a day and what an experience! Eli - Grade 6  NATIONAL HEALTH & PE DAY - WEDNESDAY 7TH SEPTEMBEREvery year on this day We move because we know it's the way To help our body, health and mind In different ways we seem to find This year we started with Morning Fitness And Susie was our exercising witness Warm up, Tabata and some Dance This exercise was our first chance To move and enjoy the start of the day By moving in many different ways Later that day a second chance Basketball, Soccer, Bocce, Skipping and Dance So many students making good choices to move Whether it was ball games or busting a move It is important for us to get our 30 minutes a day In any form or shape or our favourite way. Happy Health & PE Day 2022!  TERM 3 PHYSICAL EDUCATIONIn another blink of an eye, Term 3 is coming to a close and what a term it has been. YYLC has completed their 8 week Kingswim Program. CLC has covered Target Games, Net/Wall Games and Sports Science Week. SLC and PLC has completed Dance, Fundamental Movement Skills and Gymnastics. It has been jam packed and full of learning and improvements for all of our students Prep to Grade 6. Sports Club has continued at lunch time with a special visit from the local Mernda Police. Another amazing effort from all students with their Physical Education this term! Below is just a small snap shot of some of our students in action.   MINI ATHLETICS MORNING AT MERNDA PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL
As the students stepped out onto the grass And the chill swept across the school The excitement silent, yet deafening The breeze floated in and kept things cool The events were all laid out ready Our Grade 6 leaders prompting the start All students ready to run, jump and throw While exercising their muscles and heart The juniors completed the modified events For the seniors this was their test To represent the school in the district By doing their absolute best The sun finally broke through the clouds that morning And created a warmth across the school ground All students demonstrated the CARE values while participating And now the Mernda Park Athletics Team I have found! A big thankyou to staff and students for all of their help and assistance in Week 1! An amazing start to the Term and another great example of students DARING TO CARE!
TERM 3 INTERSCHOOL SPORT - NEW STRUCTURE AND PROGRAM FOR THIS TERMDuring the last two years, the Bridge Inn North District has been continuing their work on increasing participation for students across all schools. A decision was made to adapt a Term 3 Interschool Sport Program that incorporated the three sports that have previously been Gala Day Events - Basketball, Softball and Volleyball. This Term is our first with the new structure and sports on a weekly basis. Students are beyond excited with the continuous opportunity to play, learn and compete in their chosen sports for this upcoming Term. We are looking forward to gettig started. Below are the dates and venues for the pending season:
BRIDGE INN NORTH DISTRICT SPORTING EVENTSAs part of the Bridge Inn North District, we have Carnival events that students will be selected for to be a part of in Term 3. The date and venues is as follows:
 In the blink of an eye, Term 2 has flown by and what a term it has been! From National Walk Safely to School Day, Kingswim Swimming Program, Free G Gymnastics, Sports Club and Fundamental Skills...it has been jam packed! We have been extremely lucky to get through the Winter Interschool Sport season with no rain and all students have competed and participated in Netball, AFL and Soccer brilliantly. The CARE values continue to be our focus throughout our PE program and provide students an opportunity to see the links between physical activity and these values. Keeping it short and sweet, I am feeling grateful that we have been able to sustain six months of learning and continuity for our students in PE and Health Education and am looking forward to Term 3 and 4 with plenty more to come.
I wish everyone a safe and restful holiday! Keep Daring to CARE! Susie ;) On the first day of term 2, we got to choose our Winter interschool sport. The options were netball, soccer and football. After waiting two weeks we could finally play and everyone was beyond excited. Our first game was a forfeit and we enjoyed training on the big Mernda ground. The next game of the round was awesome! We played so well and won 34 to 10. I now understand how important being able to play and getting outside is for me and it’s great to be back at it.
Jett As the first game of interschool sports began, lots of voices sound around the court. “Here if you need!” My teammate shoots a goal. As the ball flies off the ring, I grab the rebound passing the ball to my teammate. Hearing the loud, positive cheers from the crowd. I run faster than ever to get the ball back. I really have enjoyed netball this term. A big thanks to the YYLC teachers for letting us have the most fun in sports and making it fair for everyone. Jessica On Friday we were deciding a sport we wanted to pick for inter school sports. I chose football but some people chose soccer and netball. I was happy because there were 20 other students playing football. The grade 4’s help us out to play when there are students away. This round, we automatically won because they didn’t have enough players to play. So we let the opponents borrow some of our players for that game. The game was on its way we scored 47-0 but even though we won we said well done and thanks for coming. They had a blast and we did too. Declan The mixed football team of grade 4’s, 5’s & 6’s nervously stood on the wet slippery ground against Saint Paul of the Apostle. Crowding around our coach we patiently waited for our places on the field. Roles and positions were given away one by one. Running to our spots and meeting our opponent, we prepared for battle. Giving one glare at each other before the whistle sounded… Charlotte I felt the burn of the cold on my ears. When I enter the gate, the sensation leaves me when I enter the classroom. Nervousness and excitement of going to another school and playing with each other rises inside me. We stepped onto the bus, we didn’t have far to travel to take on the school of the week. Chace and Jason As our team steps foot on the ground, the clouds start spitting on our heads. We all stare at them, waiting for the whistle to call start. OOOWEEE!!!! The whistle signals to start. We begin passing and yelling out for the ball. As Louie bombs the ball down to us, we have a great opportunity to score. Next second, Ruben gets the ball and goes for the first goal. We all start cheering ready for the next play. Mernda Primary starts with a great pass and starts heading down towards goal. One of their players shoots and Liam comes up with an amazing save. Even though Mernda Primary put in a late charge for the game, we came out victors 3-2. Jacob and Jasper The AFL Girl’s Gala Day was on the 14th of June and held at Waterview Reserve (Mernda). Even though it was freezing, we had so much fun! The team helped each other out and we all tried our best all day! Each one of us was showing our CARE values. Our tackles were fair and we tried to score goals. All of our players played their positions as well as they could. We helped celebrate the other teams and overall, the day was amazing to be a part of. Thank you to Alison for being a brilliant coach on the day! Holly Sports club has been a program that we at Mernda Park Primary have created to further assist the students in Grade 4/5/6 continue to develop their skills in different sports, leadership, conflict resolution and extend the CARE values. This program is driven by student voice, where sports are suggested by our students who then learn and participate in the chosen sport for 3 weeks. At the commencement of each sport, teams or courts are mixed between Grades 4/5/6 with students who then learn to play, manage and work with a different group each week. Each lunchtime we have a CARE Captain that is nominated by the students for demonstrating the CARE values and Rights and Responsibilities behaviours including cheering on other’s success, using manners and treating other’s as equals. The CARE Captains have responsibilities to manage their teams or run a court depending on the sport. In addition to the participating students, it has provided an opportunity for our Grade 6 students to take on an umpire/referee role in some of our sports. These roles have been extremely valuable to our students who have reported enhancing their skills in Collaboration, Responsibility and Empathy which feature heavily in this program. The sports that students have chosen so far this term are Futsal (indoor soccer) and Downball. We have had such a positive response from students about this program and are looking forward to seeing where it goes and how it continues to develop across the year. Sports Club - Futsal The first 3 weeks of sports club the 4,5,6’s involved played indoor soccer (Futsal). The year six’s umpired to gain experience and leadership skills. The games went for twenty minutes with subs every two. It was interesting as an umpire to see each team’s different perspectives on the game. At the end of every lunch the umpires awarded a CARE captain to a student that was displaying the CARE values on the day. The CARE captains received a sticker that made them captains for the next lunchtime. Their job was to organise their teams at the start of sports club and organise their teams subs. All teams were amazing, and seemed to have a lot of fun. I think everyone would agree that Sports Club has been really amazing. Thank you Susie, Rhece and Corinne for creating this amazing opportunity. Paige I enjoyed Futsal at Sports Club because it teaches people what it takes to be a leader. I also enjoyed making friends with people I wouldn't usually play with. There's two courts so there's more play time for everyone so you can play the full 20 minutes. There are teachers there so that students can organise and work through any problems in the stadium during lunch. I really enjoyed it. I’m better now at communicating confidently with different people. Lucas Sports Club - Downball We were gathered around Susie and Rhece at the beginning of the first day for the rules to be explained. Susie then separated us into 6 different groups to play in. The game was fun and ran smoothly because the rules were the original - barebones downball, no cherries, no JGI (Just got in Dunce)...no nothing. At the end of each day, a new CARE Captain was selected to keep watch over the players and nominate a new CARE captain for the next day. Every day we played fairly, supported each other and became much better in not just our sport, but with us as a whole. Everyone had fun and honestly I’m happy that I joined. In conclusion, this was the best Downball experience I’ve ever had! Mahad When the sports club first started I didn't go, but when the downball version came I instantly joined. Mahad and I had actually tried to make a downball tournament before, but Susie and Rhece showed us how to get it going and everyone wanted to play because they wanted to try out the downball tournament. When the downball sports club first launched, I saw a ton of people that wanted to play the downball. The first time I went, I was in court 5. We played for a few days and the rules were getting better and we were having so much fun and I got to be CARE captain. It has taught me a lot about my skills on and off the court. Johnathan  As we got off the bus with excitement. We arrived at Greensborough Hockey Club, ready to play. We got our sticks and started practising, Our game began. Our fixture was Whittlesea, St Josphs, Mernda and St Mary’s. We won all our games except for St Mary’s. We came runners up but overall we had a brilliant day full of teamwork, enjoyment and new learning.
Briana Students from Year 5 & 6 went to the hockey gala to play other school teams across our district. Our first game was against Whittlesea. We have never played hockey before, but our first match went pretty well, scoring 1 goal. We really enjoyed learning the basic rules. Our second game was against St Josephs. We scored 1 goal and had a bit more strategy applied into the game this time. We had more spacing out and a lot more passing. The third team we played against was Mernda Primary. They put up a good fight by stopping us from scoring even one goal! Brayden did a great job trying his best and defended hard against a tough opponent! And last but not least we played St Mary’s Whittlesea. They put up a great game, but this time we had really specific positioning that was standing pretty good against them. We had an amazing time out there playing our best. Special thanks to Susie and Amanda for organising this event. It could not have happened without them. Eli The 5/6 Hockey Team travelled to Greensborough Hockey Club to play in a gala day district against 4 Bridge Inn North school teams. When we arrived we all were jumping with excitement. The girls first team we were playing was against Whittlesea. We had never played before, but had so much fun learning the basics of hockey. The game was fierce and in the end the game ended up being a tie. We had no time to waste, because our next game was around the corner waiting for us. For this game, the girls discussed and agreed on a game plan and positions. We won our first ever game! We were so pumped! Our defence, midfield and forward were ready to go for our game playing Mernda Primary. The game was super fast-paced and aggressive and we ended up with a massive win of 5-3. Our last game was against St Mary’s Whittlesea. It was fierce. We were tired, but never gave up. Unfortunately, we lost our last game but we were so proud of ourselves as we had finished Runners Up. At the ceremony we clapped and cheered for everyone who won a flag. Cristabella On a cool, awesome, Autumn day, some Yan Yean students went to the Hockey Gala day. We were so excited and nervous at the same time. We played against 4 other schools in our district at the Greensborough Hockey Club. There were four different turfs on which we could play on. In our first matches our teams played against Whittlesea Primary. It was amazing! The girl’s team came second in runners up. It was super fun for everyone, even when we didn’t win. Everyone had a great time learning and playing a new sport. Sloka  District Cross Country - Wednesday the 18th of May
It was all clear skies, until the horn blew. Angry, grey, giants crowded the skies, as the competitors trudged on in the muddy, rainy, foggy bush track. After three kilometres of hard work and sweat, we managed to cross the finish line, just as rain clouds vacated the sky. This year we had the greatest number of students represent the MPPS team and we had beaten two major schools! Three of our competitors were successful in making it to the next round…DIVISION. Mahiru I looked around nervously at the other competitors. It was like competing against angry bulls. But the encouragement from my classmates, seemed to decrease the butterflies. “On the sound of the horn. 3,2,1, GO!” Everyone started flying across the field, but I stood back with my classmates, Holly, Romana, Ruby F and Helma. We all ran our individual races. The experience was amazing and we all did so well to run our own race and do ourselves proud. Samanvita Division Cross Country - Tuesday 31st May It was a windy, cloudy, chilly Tuesday morning. The MPPS team of 3 was ready to run. Isabella was up first, the under 9 girls, cold to the bone, at the start line ready for the horn to blow. HONK! They’re off! After 2 km of running, Isabella had a sensational finish. Now it was Jensen’s turn. He was at the start line ready to run his legs off. Despite illness, he ran his heart out and raced the best he could. The rain started to pour down as my race started. I was nervous, but ready to run. The end of the race was amazing, I out ran the person in front of me. With great success, the day finished on a high note for all of us. Matilda |
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