December and Student Success

"Tis the time of year where we deck the halls


. . . with awards of recognition and celebration


… and the odd sparkly decoration. "

There is so much to celebrate in the Fernside School Community and parents are a massive part of that.
Thank you . Have a lovely warm and relaxed summer break (and some rain too I hope). Annabel

6 classes descended on Rangiora Golf Club last week so the students could experience the game for real. They appreciated the opportunity to have putting competitions and walk the fairways with their peers and parents. There was much laughter and celebration, and entertainment as promised!

This week 19 students represented the Rakahuri Zone at the Canterbury Athletics Championships in Ashburton. Many students achieved PB's and made finals in races.
To top that , Amelia Fungavaka won the 10 girls Shot Put with a throw of 8.82m smashing her previous School record! Congratulations Amelia.

Today, all 4 of our School Basketball Teams will take to the court, many for the last time as they transition to High School, for the NCJBA Finals. Good luck to all the teams and a
MASSIVE THANKS TO OUR COACHES: LUCAS, KELLIE, MITCHELL, MEGAN & MR BAILEY.

Last week Jacob, Ashton & Cohan competed in the Canterbury Triathlon achieving fantastic times and credible placings. Jacob took out 11th in the 11 boys, Ashton 17th in 10 boys & Cohan 18th in 9 boys.

Athletes excel and entertain

I was lucky to have witnessed athletes at the peak of human achievement in the weekend. The performers in Le Noir exhibited incredible feats of strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance - a sight to behold!
Standing for the French National Anthem to show our support and solidarity with the France was a truly moving event.

Fernside Students have shown what practice, determination and competitiveness can achieve.

56 students qualified for the Zone Rakahuri Athletics Championships (see results on the athletics page).

And to cap it off 19 athletes have qualified for the Canterbury Primary Schools' Athletics Championships in December at Ashburton. Congratulations to Dylan, Nik, Roger, Wattie, Willa, Jessie, Elloise, Lillie, Amelia, Olivia, Tayla, Maddison, Sienna, Felix, Angus, William H, Tom, Josh, Xanthe.

Humility, respect, determination, TEAM - and a plan! (and, oh & a huge smattering of skill)

What a game from the 2 down-under teams!
So much to gush about and what a work-out for the spectators, let alone the players!

Fernside School:
To celebrate the rugby world cup win we will have a special “Blackout” mufti day tomorrow. Monday 2 Nov. 
We would love to see everyone in black. 
Please spread around if possible.

It is Athletics Sports week - come along to support the students and the teachers (with measuring and safety).
Set up at 8am on Wednesday 4 November 
9 am sprints, field events, 2pm middle distance
(see athletics page for full timetable)

SPRING AT LAST!

Blog Posts have been lacking for a while now as we recovered from a harsh winter - and just like that we lurched into a stunning spring (well not from a farmers' point of view - please let it rain sometime soon in all of North Canterbury!)

There are many opportunities for students to be involved in Sport, so please peruse the pages on this blog or visit the Waimak Council website for Club Information.

I don't fully support the notion of winter sports competitions being held in Summer because I think it is important for children to be involved in a variety of activities. Having said that, there is summer hockey, twilight netball & football to name a few.

I hope as many of our children get involved with the numerous opportunities out there - Touch Rugby, Tennis, Cricket, Swimming, Athletics, Running, Biking, Hiking, Gymnastics, Trampoline, Basketball etc.

The Rangiora Golf Club "Junior" Programme will commence 18th October and run until the end of March 2016, with a break in the programme over the Christmas holiday period.

The programme is suitable for children 6 yrs to 18 yrs and will be held on Sunday morning from 10.30am until 11.30am and has been designed to introduce the game of golf to prospective and budding young golfers.  Golf clubs are not necessary as the Club has a selection of clubs available for use.

Please contact annabel.wilson@xtra.co.nz for information on these and other sporting and recreational clubs.

I am posting an ad for a company that is supporting Sport in North Canterbury, just like our very special MAINPOWER.

What role do parents play in our children's sport?

The very survival of youth sport is reliant on parents - funding, transporting, being on committees, coaching, managing, umpiring, administration, and the list goes on.

Saturday is synonymous with sport in my family and yet it is very much a family time - whether watching your own children, nieces and nephews, parents.

Is winning important?
Is fair play important?

Drug cheats, rascist comments, referee abuse, coach harassment - they have all been in the news this week.

But so has the joy, heartbreaks and benefits of participating in Sport.

Children like to participate in sport, whether they lose or win. It is adults that make an issue of the result. Instead, Mums and Dads,  set goals on such areas as performing certain skills, times, or "plays" well. In that way athletes can achieve (and measure if interested) success regardless of the final score. If we win then that is great too ( I am competitive and I do like to win for sure).

Play to perform well -  within the rules and within your team structure and ethos.
Ultimately don't we all play sport because we love it!

All fired up after reading an article in The Press this morning.

A wide range of physical activities and sports are best

This week I read an article featuring the great Hockey great Wayne Gretzky. It is generally agreed that he is one of the "great athletes" just like Michael Jordan.

In an interview with the National Post in March 2000, Gretzky said that, “If sport has a high point of the year, it must be the first week of spring.”  

…When I was growing up, I used to love this time of year. It was when I put my hockey equipment away and I was absolutely ecstatic to see the end of the hockey season. One of the worst things to happen to the game, in my opinion, has been year-round hockey and, in particular, summer hockey.

All it does for kids, as far as I can tell, is keep them out of sports they should be doing in warmer weather. I could hardly wait to get my lacrosse stick out and start throwing the ball around. It didn’t matter how cold or rainy it would be, we’d be out firing the ball against walls and working on our moves as we played the lacrosse equivalent to road hockey.

All the good hockey players seemed to play lacrosse in those days and everyone of them learned something from the game to carry over to the other – things athletes can only learn by mixing up games they play when they are young."

"In fact, most of Canada’s best hockey players are involved in other sports, and when they choose to focus on hockey alone, they don’t specialize until they are 14.

This is not to say that spring and summer hockey programs are bad or wrong because the truth is that some kids want to keep playing. So a great plan is to also include some other sports and physical activities to balance things out a bit.

Renowned coach Brent Sutter agrees that well-rounded athletes make the best hockey players and even Hockey Canada recognizes that playing other sports improves the skills of goalies and forwards and defensemen.

In fact, Hockey Canada’s new spring hockey programs incorporate other sports including soccer, floor-ball, baseball, lacrosse, golf, and mountain biking. The idea is to help hockey players develop overall athleticism. The “skill-development camps” focus on fun. Which is a break in and of itself from the grind of high-pressure competition.

Gretzky’s not the only hockey legend to frown on year-round hockey for kids.

In 1998, Trevor Linden told sports journalist Steve Simmons that he played hockey until April, then played baseball all summer until hockey started again in mid-September. “I didn’t even see my skates for about five months a year,” he said. “I think the kids today are playing way too much hockey, and all you have to do is look at the development to see it really isn’t producing any better players. We have to let the kids be kids.” "

Winter Tournaments, Alpine Skiing, and Mini Basketball

With snow settling locally it is a great time to get out into the mountains to experience play of a different sort. I have posted a clothing guide for the Senior Ski trip on one of the pages.

The FIFA U20 Mens' World Cup has been won by Serbia and the All Black Squad of 41 has been named. The Highlanders look good to win the Super 14 and the NZ Rowers win gold in Europe!

Bailey Watson is in a NC Representative Basketball team to play in a South Island Tournament in the Holidays - good luck to one of our basketball captains!

Our Sports Interchange programme ends this term. Next term we will have some teams competing in the Rakahuri Winter Sports Tournament. This is an optional sporting activity. (see notice on page)

Mini Basketball is an option for years 3 & 4 students in terms 3 & 4 - please request a notice or download it from the basketball page.
Friday night basketball restarts in the latter half  of term 3 and all of term 4

Fernside Students represent the School at Canterbury Cross Country Championships and win in their teams

Last week Jacob, Harri, Lillie, Ashton & Xanthe ran in the Rakahuri Teams at the Canterbury Cross Country Champs that were held at the Halswell Quarry. 3 of our students were awarded Canterbury Sports Certificates. Along with Willa Carpinter,(7/8 hockey) , there are only 4 students currently in the School with one of these highly coveted placings.

From fields of 123 all our runners finished in the top 50. Visit the Cant website for full results.(link on this page)
It was also a team event. Rakahuri finished in the top 5 for every event (21 teams in each category).
yr5B - 5th, 5Girls - 3rd (Xanthe's team), 6G - 2nd  (Lillie's team), 6B - 1st (Ashton's team), 7G - 3rd, 7B - 5th (Harri 7 Jacob's team) and 8G - 5th, 8B - 2nd.

FIFA - football. WE are so lucky to have another  WOrld Cup event in our country. I have enjoyed watching some of the games and attending the Germany v Nigeria Game. Penalties seem such a cruel way to decide a game that I wonder why they don't look at reducing players every 5 minutes or golden goal - too much time I guess.

_______________________________________________________

Rakahuri - I congratulate the efforts of all 20 students running in the cross country event at Loburn Domain today.
Everyone went for it pushing themselves to achieve results they can be proud of. Satisfaction was on the faces of our runners and the team supported and celebrated everyone's successes.
WE await the official results tomorrow but know we have at least 4 students going to the Canterbury event in 2 weeks time.

Lillie Rayner won the yr 6 girls' race over both Rakahuri and Pegasus Zones
Jacob Turner finished 2nd and Harri Silcock 3rd in the Rakahuri Zone.
Xanthe Jane 4th, Ashton Hampton 4th, have also qualified for the Canterbury Cross Country on the 10th June.

Thanks to all the parents who supported the runners and helped with managing and marshalling as well as transport!

Thanks to Janelle and the team at the Mainpower Trust for running the event.

Cross country, Biking Success and Invasion Games

Please visit the Cross country page for results. WE have a team of 21 competing in the NC Champs this Wednesday.

I hope you have taken up an opportunity to get U20 Football World Cup tickets!

Gymnastics

If your child attends gymnastics training, they may be interested in entering a Canterbury Schools' Gymnastics competition. For more information please contact Annabel annabel.wilson@xtra.co.nz

Visit the website for more information: www.primaryschoolscanterbury.org.nz

Recently we had 4 students participate in the Canterbury Primary Schools' Duathlon at Ruapuna. They achieved commendable results over the challenging 3 km run and 6 - 9km bike. Notable achievements were in the 11 yr old boys' race of 141 competitors - Jacob finished 7th and Harri 12th!

These same 2 boys competed in a new 6 hour endurance bike ride in Ashburton yesterday.

Harri and Jacob along with their rugby team mate Dominic Pulley from Ashley School. (Dom got 5th at the Duathlon).  won the Mid-Canterbury Mountain bike 6 hour Inter-School Challenge. It is the first time they have had a school team class at the event and 
" Fernside School" will be the first school to have its name on the trophy!       6 HOURS!
Each team member did a 10km loop with all 3 of them completing 4 laps each
(40km) over the 6 hour time frame. Their team completed 12 laps as they came
in with 30 seconds to spare! All the other year 7-8 teams did 11 laps!!
What an awesome effort - very proud MUMs on Mothers'Day!

We are enjoying 5 weeks of playing modified football with Karoush from Mainland Football.
Remember to get your  tickets to the upcoming FIFA U20 World Cup events being held here in our own city, Otautahi, Christchurch.

The students have chosen which Invasion Games they wish to play in the upcoming Sports Interchange Afternoons with other NC Schools. We are participating over 5 weeks and look forward to parents supporting us. See the page options for more information.

Rakahuri & Pegasus Winter Weekly sport

5th, 12th, 19th,  26th  June & 3rd July

Likewise we are look forward to our School Cross Country running o'er the Hills and Vales of a Fernside farm.
This event runs from 11.15 am to 12.30pm. Again please see the attached page for more information.

Term 2 at Fernside School - football, running, cycling, and invading!

Welcome back to all, if any! Sports' Blog followers.
Many of us will have by now launched into Winter Sports either as players, coaches, managers, administrators, nutritionists, sleep therapists, podiatrists, wanna-be physic's and medics, taxi drivers, or sideline supporters. THANK YOU for supporting our youth to play sport.

WE are recovering from the highs and lows of the ICC Cricket World Cup and are experiencing testing times for our beloved Crusaders Let's hope for a good result against the Blues this weekend.

This week we begin a 5-week football unit at School in line with our Invasion Games Focus.
Mainland football are assisting us to develop our skills and celebrate the FIFA U20 Men's World Cup here and in Australia.
How exciting is it to have yet another world event here in Christchurch and have an opportunity to watch the future stars of The Beautiful Game.

In a few weeks time the students in rooms 8 - 12 will be competing in the School Senior School Cross- Country. Wed 20 May. This will again have a House aspect to it although it is primarily about individual improvement and achievement. Students will set goals for this event and have many opportunities to display the all important key competencies of optimism, perseverance and self-management.

WE participate in sports interchange with other local schools for 5 weeks from June 5. The students have been asked to select from netball, rugby, football, rippa rugby, and hockey. I would encourage students to try a different sport from the one they play on a weekend.

Next week we are proud to have a handful of students represent us at the Canterbury Duathlon. We wish them all the best as they run & cycle their way around a demanding course at Ruapuna raceway.

There is a national rippa rugby competition which we hope to be a part of. Any interested Year 6 students can join the squad in the lunch hours before a final team is selected to play in the Rakiura Tournament on 24 June.

Coming up fast on 10 May is a 6 hour bike race in Ashburton for yr 7/8 students . Harri and Jacob are keen to get a team together. (www.midcanterburymtbclub.co.nz)

LAte BIKE entries!Swimming, Triathlon, Duathlon, CRICKET and Orienteering And holiday programmes (see page)

Go the Black Caps!
Very excited and nervous about this weekend's match.

And what is happening with our Crusaders and Tactix?
Tickets for the Rams Basketball season are on sale!

The Primary Schools' Sports Assn have changed their triathlon date
It is now November 26th.

RAKAHURI RAGE ENTRY DEADLINE EXTENDED

You heard it right, we’re now taking entries for the Rakahuri Rage up to Tuesday 24^th March.  Please help us to spread the word around your school and community.  Entries are steadily coming in but we know of heaps more people who have said they are going to enter but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  This should help those people out.

Also we’ve had a number of people approach us saying they were hoping to enter a team but their potential team mates have other commitments that day.  So if you know of anyone who would like to compete in the Rakahuri Rage but doesn’t have anyone to ride with, get them to email me and we’ll form a team or two of lonely hearts. 

There’s just over a week to go now till the Rakahuri Rage kicks off – or as someone in the office said “9 sleeps to go”!  This bit of rain we are having is going to bring the bush back to life, grow a bit of green grass in the transition area and help pack down the track again, so things are looking really good. 

The long-range MetService weather report suggests race day will be warmish but maybe with some showers.  I know from personal experience that riding the Rakahuri Rage track in the rain is quite pleasant so don’t let that put you off.  Just make sure you have a gazebo or shelter with you for when you are not riding.  Some people have even talked about bringing a caravan – that’s fine by us so long as it fits on your allocated team area.  The important thing is to set yourself up so you can enjoy your time with your team mates and rivals between your rides.  

We’ll have food and coffee suppliers on site (and icecream!), our photographers around the track will send in photos and we’ll display these throughout the day along with reports from our timers.  We’re looking forward to it being a fun and enjoyable day for all.

Happy riding.

Tony Kean

On behalf of the Rakahuri Rage Race Committee

South Island Schools’ Orienteering Festival

Incorporating

South Island Schools’ Orienteering Championships

For secondary, intermediate  and primary schools

Sat 18^th April Orton Bradley Park                                Sun 19^th April Lincoln University

Long distance event: afternoon start times                          Sprint distance event: morning start times

Download event information from: http://papo.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SI-Schools-15-entry-info.pdf

Download entry form from:  www.papo.org.nz and scrol down to South Island Schools champs

Training opportunities:

Sun 22^nd  March: Victoria Park PAPO event : starts available 10.30-1.00pm. Registration is at the Victoria Park main picnic area beside the children's playground. The start and finish are both adjacent to registration.
There will be five point to point courses available: white, yellow, orange and two red level, and also a score event.

Sun 29^th March: Butlers Bush PAPO event, near Springfield: starts available 10.30-1.00pm  See www.papo.org.nz for details./

Tues eve 31^st March: Rangiora High school:  Due to popular demand!! An extra sprint event has been put on by more of our junior members. See www.papo.org.nz for details

Invitations are out for a South Island Schools team to travel to Auckland for the Queens Birthday interregional challenge on 30^th May- 1^st Jun.  Email jean.corywright@gmail.com if interested

Swimming success at Rakahuri & Mountain Bike Racing

Rakahuri Swimming Results 2015

Rosa Davidson             1^st breaststroke 50m 11yr

Leith Marshall              1^st backstroke 50m 10yr

Logan Heron                1^st freestyle 25m Open

Cohan Glintmeyer       2^nd backstroke 50m 9yr

Jessie Mitchell              3^rd freestyle, 3^rd backstroke 50m 12+yr

Relay success in 3 events!

9yr mixed relay         2^nd    Charlotte Lond, Rosa Wheeler, Cohan Glintmeyer, Ed Davidson

10yr mixed relay 2^nd    Olivia Ward, Isabel Thiellier, Leith Marshall, Kees Bohnenn

12yr mixed relay 3^rd   Jessie Mitchell, Mikaela Bohnenn, Nikolas Dickson, Bailey Howard

These are wonderful results for our students. Thanks to our parent helpers on the day.

Some swimmers have been invited to attend the North Canterbury Championship event while some have qualified for the Canterbury Primary Schools’ Championships.

Mountain Bike Racing for School students - follow the link
March 20 - $20
http://www.huxster.org.nz